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'    THE 
GOLDEN  BOOK  OF  THE 
DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 


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THE 

GOLDEN  BOOK  OF  THE 

DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

BY 

HENDRIK  WILLEM  van  LOON 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH  SEVENTY 
REPRODUCTIONS  OF  OLD  PRINTS 


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NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1916 


50Gi.o 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
The  Century  Co. 


Published,  October,  1916 


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«-       £,      C 


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«=-  o  '•^ .  \ 

FOR  HANSJE  AND  WILLEM 

This    is    a    story    of    magnificent    failures.     The    men 

who  equipped  the  expeditions  of  which  I  shall  tell  you  the 

story  died  in  the  poorhouse.     The  men  who  took  part  in 

I       these   voyages   sacrificed   their    lives   as   cheerfully   as    they 

4^      lighted  a  new  pipe  or  opened  a  fresh  bottle.     Some  of  them 

were  drowned,  and  some  of  them  died  of  thirst.     A  few 

were  frozen  to  death,  and  many  were  killed  by  the  heat 

of  the  scorching  sun.     The  bad  supplies  furnished  by  lying 

contractors  buried  many  of  them  beneath  the  green  cocoa- 

;)v       nut-trees  of  distant  lands.     Others  were  speared  by  canni- 

^       bals  and  provided  a  feast  for  the  hungry  tribes  of  the  Pacific 

'^       Islands. 

^  But  what  of  it?  It  was  all  in  the  day's  work.  These 
excellent  fellows  took  whatever  came,  be  it  good  or  bad,, 
or  indifferent,  with  perfect  grace,  and  kept  on  smiling. 
They  kept  their  powder  dry,  did  whatever  their  hands  found 
to  do,  and  left  the  rest  to  the  care  of  that  mysterious 
Providence  who  probably  knew  more  about  the  ultimate 
good  of  things  than  they  did. 

I  want  you  to  know  about  these  men  because  they  were 
Kyour  ancestors.  If  you  have  inherited  any  of  their  good 
qualities,  make  the  best  of  them;  they  will  prove  to  be 
worth  while.  If  you  have  got  your  share  of  their  bad 
ones,  fight  these  as  hard  as  you  can;  for  they  will  lead  you 
a  merry  chase  before  you  get  through. 

Whatever    you    do,    remember    one    lesson:     "Keep    on 
smiling." 

Hendrik  Willem  van  Loon. 
Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  New  York. 
February  29,  191 6. 


i. 


X 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

The  history  of  America  is  the  story  of  the 
conquest  of  the  West.  The  history  of  Holland 
is  the  story  of  the  conquest  of  the  sea.  The 
western  frontier  influenced  American  life, 
shaped  American  thought,  and  gave  America 
the  habits  of  self-reliance  and  independence  of 
action  which  differentiate  the  people  of  the 
great  republic  from  those  of  other  countries. 

The  wide  ocean,  the  wind-swept  highroad  of 
commerce,  turned  a  small  mud-bank  along  the 
North  Sea  into  a  mighty  commonwealth  and 
created  a  civilization  of  such  individual  char- 
acter that  it  has  managed  to  maintain  its  per- 
sonal traits  against  the  aggressions  of  both  time 
and  man. 

When  we  discuss  the  events  of  American  his- 
tory we  place  our  scene  upon  a  stage  which 
has  an  immense  background  of  wide  prairie 
and  high  mountain.     In  this  vast  and  dim  ter- 

•  • 
Vll 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

ritory  there  is  always  room  for  another  man  of 
force  and  energy,  and  society  is  a  rudimentary 
bond  between  free  and  sovereign  human  beings, 
unrestricted  by  any  previous  tradition  or  ordi- 
nance. Hence  we  study  the  accounts  of  a 
peculiar  race  which  has  grown  up  under  con- 
ditions of  complete  independence  and  which 
relies  upon  its  own  endeavors  to  accomplish 
those  things  which  it  has  set  out  to  do. 

The  virtues  of  the  system  are  as  evident  as  its 
faults.  We  know  that  this  development  is  al- 
most unique  in  the  annals  of  the  human  race. 
We  know  that  it  will  disappear  as  soon  as  the 
West  shall  have  been  entirely  conquered.  We 
also  know  that  the  habits  of  mind  which  have 
been  created  during  the  age  of  the  pioneer  will 
survive  the  rapidly  changing  physical  condi- 
tions by  many  centuries.  For  this  reason  those 
of  us  who  write  American  history  long  after  the 
disappearance  of  the  typical  West  must  still 
pay  due  reverence  to  the  influence  of  the  old 
primitive  days  when  man  was  his  own  master 
and  trusted  no  one  but  God  and  his  own  strong 
arm. 

viii 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

The  history  of  the  Dutch  people  during  the 
last  five  centuries  shows  a  very  close  analogy. 
The  American  who  did  not  like  his  fate  at 
home  went  "west."  The  Hollander  who  de- 
cided that  he  would  be  happier  outside  of  the 
town  limits  of  his  native  city  went  "to  sea,"  as 
the  expression  was.  He  always  had  a  chance 
to  ship  as  a  cabin-boy,  just  as  his  American  suc- 
cessor could  pull  up  stakes  at  a  moment's  notice 
to  try  his  luck  in  the  next  county.  Neither  of 
the  two  knew  exactly  what  they  might  find  at 
the  end  of  their  voyage  of  adventure.  Good 
luck,  bad  luck,  middling  luck,  it  made  no  dif- 
ference. It  meant  a  change,  and  most  fre- 
quently it  meant  a  change  for  the  better.  Best 
of  all,  even  if  one  had  no  desire  to  migrate,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  quite  contented  to  stay 
at  home  and  be  buried  in  the  family  vault  of 
his  ancestral  estate,  he  knew  at  all  times  that 
he  was  free  to  leave  just  as  soon  as  the  spirit 
moved  him. 

Remember  this  when  you  read  Dutch  his- 
tory. It  is  an  item  of  grave  importance.  It 
was  always  in  the  mind  of  the  mighty  potentate 

ix 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

who  happened  to  be  the  ruler  and  tax-gatherer 
of  the  country.     He  might  not  be  willing  to 
acknowledge  it,  he  might  even  deny  it  in  ve- 
hement documents  of  state,  but  in  the  end  he 
was  obliged  to  regulate  his  conduct  toward  his 
subjects  with  due  respect  for  and  reference  to 
their  wonderful  chance  of  escape.     The  Mid- 
dle Ages  had  a  saying  that  "city  air  makes 
free."     In  the  Low  Countries  we  find  a  won- 
derful  combination   of   city   air   and   the   salt 
breezes  of  the  ocean.     It  created  a  veritable  at- 
mosphere of  liberty,  and  not  only  the  liberty  of 
political  activity,  but  freedom  of  thought  and 
independence  in  all  the  thousand  and  one  dif- 
ferent little  things  which  go  to  make  up  the 
complicated  machinery  of  human  civilization. 
Wherever  a  man  went  in  the  country  there  was 
the  high  sky  of  the  coastal  region,  and  there 
were  the  canals  which  would  carry  his  small 
vessel  to  the  main  roads  of  trade  and  ultimate 
prosperity.     The  sea   reached   up   to  his  very 
front  door.     It  supported  him  in  his  struggle 
for  a  living,  and  it  was  his  best  ally  in  his  fight 
for    independence.     Half    of    his    family    and 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

friends  lived  on  and  by  and  of  the  sea.  The 
nautical  terms  of  the  forecastle  became  the  lan- 
guage of  his  land.  His  house  reminded  the 
foreign  visitor  of  a  ship's  cabin. 

And  finally  his  state  became  a  large  naval 
commonwealth,  w^ith  a  number  of  ship-ovs^ners 
as  a  board  of  directors  and  a  foreign  policy  dic- 
tated by  the  need  of  the  oversea  commerce. 
We  do  not  care  to  go  into  the  details  of  this 
interesting  question.  It  is  our  purpose  to  draw 
attention  to  this  one  great  and  important  fact 
upon  which  the  entire  economic,  social,  intel- 
lectual, and  artistic  structure  of  Dutch  society 
was  based.  For  this  purpose  we  have  re- 
printed in  a  short  and  concise  form  the  work 
of  our  earliest  pioneers  of  the  ocean.  They 
broke  through  the  narrow  bonds  of  their  re- 
stricted medieval  world.  In  plain  American 
terms,  'They  were  the  first  to  cross  the  AUe- 
ghanies." 

They  ushered  in  the  great  period  of  conquest 
of  West  and  East  and  South  and  North.  They 
built  their  empire  wherever  the  water  of  the 
ocean  would  carry  them.    They  laid  the  foun- 

xi 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

dations  for  a  greatness  which  centuries  of  sub- 
sequent neglect  have  not  been  able  to  destroy, 
and  which  the  present  generation  may  trium- 
phantly win  back  if  it  is  worthy  to  continue  its 
existence  as  an  independent  nation. 


Xll 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  JAN  HUYGEN  VAN   LINSCHOTEN     ....      3 

II  THE    NORTHEAST    PASSAGE 43 

III  THE   TRAGEDY   OF   SPITZBERGEN     ....     87 

IV  THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA  — FAILURE  .     97 

V  THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA  — SUCCESS  135 

VI    VAN       NOORT       CIRCUMNAVIGATES       THE 

WORLD         159 

VII    THE  ATTACK  UPON  THE  WEST  COAST  OF 

AMERICA 207 

VIII    THE  BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE     .  249 

IX    SCHOUTEN    AND    LE    MAIRE    DISCOVER    A 

NEW  STRAIT       279 

X    TASMAN    EXPLORES    AUSTRALIA      ....  303 

XI    ROGGEVEEN,    THE    LAST    OF    THE    GREAT 

VOYAGERS  325 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 


THE  GOLDEN  BOOK  OF  THE 
DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

CHAPTER  I 
JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

IT  was  the  year  of  our  Lord  1579,  and  the 
eleventh  of  the  glorious  revolution  of 
Holland  against  Spain.  Brielle  had  been 
taken  by  a  handful  of  hungry  sea-beggars. 
Haarlem  and  Naarden  had  been  murdered  out 
by  a  horde  of  infuriated  Spanish  regulars. 
Alkmaar — little  Alkmaar,  hidden  behind  lakes, 
canals,  open  fields  with  low  willows  and 
marshes — had  been  besieged,  had  turned  the 
welcome  waters  of  the  Zuyder  Zee  upon  the 
enemy,  and  had  driven  the  enemy  away.  Alva, 
the  man  of  iron  who  was  to  destroy  this  people 
of  butter  between  his  steel  gloves,  had  left  the 
stage  of  his  unsavory  operations  in  disgrace. 
The   butter    had    dribbled    away   between    his 

3 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

fingers.  Another  Spanish  governor  had  ap- 
peared. Another  failure.  Then  a  third  one. 
Him  the  climate  and  the  brilliant  days  of  his 
youth  had  killed. 

But  in  the  heart  of  Holland,  William,  of  the 
House  of  Nassau,  heir  to  the  rich  princes  of 
Orange,  destined  to  be  known  as  the  Silent,  the 
Cunning  One — this  same  William,  broken  in 
health,  broken  in  money,  but  high  of  courage, 
marshaled  his  forces  and,  with  the  despair  of  a 
last  chance,  made  ready  to  clear  his  adopted 
country  of  the  hated  foreign  domination. 

Everywhere  in  the  little  terrestrial  triangle 
of  this  newest  of  republics  there  was  the  activity 
of  men  who  had  just  escaped  destruction  by  the 
narrowest  of  margins.  They  had  faith  in  their 
own  destiny.  Any  one  who  can  go  through  an 
open  rebellion  against  the  mightiest  of  mon- 
archs  and  come  out  successfully  deserves  the 
commendation  of  the  Almighty.  The  Hol- 
landers had  succeeded.  Their  harbors,  the 
lungs  of  the  country,  were  free  once  more,  and 
could  breathe  the  fresh  air  of  the  open  sea  and 
of  commercial  prosperity. 

4 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

On  the  land  the  Spaniard  still  held  his  own, 
but  on  the  water  the  Hollander  was  master  of 
the  situation.  The  ocean,  which  had  made  his 
country  what  it  was,  which  had  built  the 
marshes  upon  which  he  lived,  which  provided 
the  highway  across  which  he  brought  home  his 
riches,  was  open  to  his  enterprise. 

He  must  go  out  in  search  of  further  adven- 
ture. Thus  far  he  had  been  the  common  car- 
rier of  Europe.  His  ships  had  brought  the 
grain  from  the  rich  Baltic  provinces  to  the 
hungry  waste  of  Spain.  His  fishermen  had 
supplied  the  fasting  table  of  Catholic  humanity 
with  the  delicacy  of  pickled  herring.  From 
Venice  and  later  on  from  Lisbon  he  had  carried 
the  products  of  the  Orient  to  the  farthest  cor- 
ners of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula.  It  was 
time  for  him  to  expand. 

The  role  of  middleman  is  a  good  role  for 
modest  and  humble  folk  who  make  a  decent 
living  by  taking  a  few  pennies  here  and  collect- 
ing a  few  pennies  there,  but  the  chosen  people 
of  God  must  follow  their  destiny  upon  the 
broad     highway     of     international     commerce 

5 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

wherever  they  can.     Therefore  the  Hollander 
must  go  to  India. 

It  was  easily  said.  But  how  was  one  to  get 
there? 

Jan  Huygen  van  Linschoten  was  born  in  the 
year  1563  in  the  town  of  Haarlem.  As  a  small 
boy  he  was  taken  to  Enkhuizen.  At  the  pres- 
ent time  JEnkhuizen  is  hardly  more  than  a 
country  village.  Three  hundred  years  ago  it 
was  a  big  town  with  high  walls,  deep  moats, 
strong  towers,  and  a  local  board  of  aldermen 
who  knew  how  to  make  the  people  keep  the 
laws  and  fear  God.  It  had  several  churches 
where  the  doctrines  of  the  great  master  Johan- 
nes Calvinus  were  taught  with  precision  and 
without  omitting  a  single  piece  of  brimstone  or 
extinguishing  a  single  flame  of  an  ever-gaping 
hell.  It  had  orphan  asylums  and  hospitals.  It 
had  a  fine  jail,  and  a  school  with  a  horny- 
handed  tyrant  who  taught  the  A  B  C's  and  the 
principles  of  immediate  obedience  with  due 
reference  to  that  delightful  text  about  the 
spoiled  child  and  the  twigs  of  a  birch-tree. 

6 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Outside  of  the  city,  when  once  you  had  passed 
the  gallows  with  its  rattling  chains  and  aggres- 
sive ravens,  there  were  miles  and  miles  of  green 
pasture.  But  upon  one  side  there  was  the  blue 
water  of  the  quiet  Zuyder  Zee.  Here  small 
vessels  could  approach  the  welcome  harbor, 
lined  on  both  sides  with  gabled  storehouses. 
It  is  true  that  when  the  tide  was  very  low  the 
harbor  looked  like  a  big  muddy  trough.  But 
these  fiat-bottomed  contraptions  rested  upon  the 
mud  with  ease  and  comfort,  and  the  next  tide 
would  again  lift  them  up,  ready  for  farther 
peregrinations.  Over  the  entire  scene  there 
hung  the  air  of  prosperity.  A  restless  energy 
was  in  the  air.  On  all  sides  there  was  evidence 
of  the  gospel  of  enterprise.  It  was  this  enter- 
prise that  collected  the  money  to  build  the  ships. 
It  was  this  enterprise,  combined  with  nautical 
cunning,  that  pushed  these  vessels  to  the  ends  of 
the  European  continent  in  quest  of  freight  and 
trade.  It  was  this  enterprise  that  turned  the 
accumulating  riches  into  fine  mansions  and 
good  pictures,  and  gave  a  first-class  education 
to  all  boys  and  girls.     It  walked  proudly  along 

8 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

the  broad  streets  where  the  best  families  lived. 
It  stalked  cheerfully  through  the  narrow  alleys 
when  the  sailor  came  back  to  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren. It  followed  the  merchant  into  his  count- 
ing-room, and  it  played  with  the  little  boys  who 
frequented  the  quays  and  grew  up  in  a  blissful 
atmosphere  of  tallow,  tar,  gin,  spices,  dried  fish, 
and  fantastic  tales  of  foreign  adventure. 

And  it  played  the  very  mischief  with  our 
young  hero.  For  when  Jan  Huygen  was  six- 
teen years  old,  and  had  learned  his  three  R's — 
reading,  'riting,  and  'rithmetic — he  shipped  as 
a  cabin-boy  to  Spain,  and  said  farewell  to  his 
native  country,  to  return  after  many  years  as  the 
missing  link  in  the  chain  of  commercial  ex- 
plorations— the  one  and  only  man  who  knew  the 
road  to  India. 

Here  the  industrious  reader  interrupts  me. 
How  could  this  boy  go  to  Spain  when  his  coun- 
try was  at  war  with  its  master,  King  Philip? 
Indeed,  this  statement  needs  an  explanation. 

Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  a  mag- 
nificent  example   of    the    failure    of    imperial 

9 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

expansion  minus  a  knowledge  of  elementary 
economics.  Here  we  had  a  country  which 
owned  the  better  part  of  the  world.  It  was  rich 
beyond  words  and  it  derived  its  opulence  from 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  For  centuries  a 
steady  stream  of  bullion  flowed  into  Spanish 
cofifers.  Alas!  it  flowed  out  of  them  just  as 
rapidly;  for  Spain,  with  all  its  foreign  glory, 
was  miserably  poor  at  home.  Her  people  had 
never  been  taught  to  work.  The  soil  did  not 
provide  food  enough  for  the  population  of  the 
large  peninsula.  Every  biscuit,  so  to  speak, 
every  loaf  of  bread,  had  to  be  imported  from 
abroad.  Unfortunately,  the  grain  business  was 
in  the  hands  of  these  same  Dutch  Calvinists 
whose  nasal  theology  greatly  offended  his  Maj- 
esty King  Philip.  Therefore  during  the  first 
years  of  the  rebellion  the  harbors  of  the  Spanish 
kingdom  had  been  closed  against  these  unre- 
generate  singers  of  Psalms.  Whereupon  Spain 
went  hungry,  and  was  threatened  with  starva- 
tion. 

Economic  necessity  conquered  religious  prej- 
udice.    The    ports    of    King    Philip's    domain 

10 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

once  more  were  opened  to  the  grain-ships  of  the 
Hollanders  and  remained  open  until  the  end  of 
the  war.  The  Dutch  trader  never  bothered 
about  the  outward  form  of  things  provided  he 
got  his  profits.  He  knew  how  to  take  a  hint. 
Therefore,  when  he  came  to  a  Spanish  port,  he 
hoisted  the  Danish  flag  or  sailed  under  the  col- 
ors of  Hamburg  and  Bremen.  There  still  was 
the  difficulty  of  the  language,  but  the  Spaniard 
was  made  to  understand  that  this  guttural  com- 
bination of  sounds  represented  diverse  Scandi- 
navian tongues.  The  tactful  custom-officers  of 
his  Most  Catholic  Majesty  let  it  go  at  that,  and 
cheerfully  welcomed  these  heretics  without 
whom  they  could  not  have  fed  their  own 
people. 

When  Jan  Huygen  left  his  own  country  he 
had  no  definite  plans  beyond  a  career  of  adven- 
ture; for  then,  as  he  wrote  many  years  later, 
"When  you  come  home,  you  have  something  to 
tell  your  children  when  you  get  old."  In  1579 
he  left  Enkhuizen,  and  in  the  winter  of  the  next 
year  he  arrived  in  Spain.  First  of  all  he  did 
some  clerical  work  in  the  town  of  Seville,  where 

II 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

he  learned  the  Spanish  language.  Next  he 
went  to  Lisbon,  where  he  became  familiar  with 
Portuguese.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  likable 
boy  who  did  cheerfully  whatever  he  found  to 
do,  but  watched  with  a  careful  eye  the  chance 
to  meet  with  his  next  adventure.  After  three 
years  of  a  roving  existence,  with  rare  good  luck, 
he  met  Vincente  da  Fonseca,  a  Dominican  who 
had  just  been  appointed  Archbishop  of  Goa  in 
the  Indies.  Jan  Huygen  obtained  a  position  as 
general  literary  factotum  to  the  new  dignitary 
and  also  acted  as  purser  for  the  captain  of  the 
ship. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  he  was  an  integral  mem- 
ber of  a  bona-fide  expedition  to  the  mysterious 
Indies.  Through  his  account  of  this  trip, 
printed  in  1595,  the  Dutch  traders  at  last 
learned  to  know  the  route  to  the  Indies.  The 
expedition  left  Lisbon  on  Good  Friday  of  the 
year  1583  with  forty  ships.  During  the  first 
few  weeks  nothing  happened.  Nothing  ever 
happened  during  the  first  weeks  on  any  of  those 
expeditions.  The  trouble  invariably  began 
after  the  first  rough  weather.     In  this  instance 

12 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

everything  went  well  until  the  end  of  April, 
when  the  coast  of  Guinea  had  been  reached. 
Then  the  fleet  entered  a  region  of  squalls  and 
severe  rainstorms.  The  rain  collected  on  the 
decks  and  ran  down  the  hatchways.  A  dozen 
times  or  so  a  day  the  fleet  had  to  come  to  a  stop 
while  all  hands  bailed  out  the  water  which 
filled  the  holds.  When  it  did  not  rain  the  sun 
beat  down  mercilessly,  and  soon  the  atmosphere 
of  the  soaked  wood  became  unpleasant.  To 
make  things  worse  the  drinking  water  was  no 
longer  fresh,  and  smelled  so  badly  that  one 
could  not  drink  it  without  closing  the  unfortu- 
nate nose  that  came  near  the  cup. 

On  the  whole  the  printed  work  of  Jan  Huy- 
gen  does  not  show  him  as  an  admirer  of  the 
Portuguese  or  their  system  of  navigation.  In 
all  his  writing  he  gives  us  the  impression  of  a 
very  sober-minded  young  Hollander  with  a  lot 
of  common  sense.  Portugal  had  then  been  a 
colonial  power  for  many  years  and  showed  un- 
mistakable signs  of  deterioration.  The  people 
had  been  too  prosperous.  They  were  no  longer 
willing  to   defend   their  own   interests   against 

13 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

other  and  younger  nations.  They  still  exer- 
cised their  Indian  monopoly  because  it  had  been 
theirs  for  so  long  a  time  that  no  one  remem- 
bered anything  to  the  contrary.  But  the  end  of 
things  had  come.  Upon  every  page  of  Jan 
Huygen's  book  we  find  the  same  evidence  of 
bad  organization,  little  jealousies,  spite,  dis- 
obedience, cowardice,  and  lack  of  concerted 
action. 

When  only  a  few  weeks  from  home  this  fleet 
of  forty  ships  encountered  a  single  small  French 
vessel.  Part  of  the  Portuguese  crew  of  the  fleet 
was  sick.  The  others  made  ready  to  flee  at 
once.  After  a  few  hours  it  was  seen  that  the 
Frenchman  had  no  evil  intentions,  and  contin- 
ued his  way  without  a  closer  inspection  of  his 
enemies.  Then  peace  returned  to  the  fleet  of 
Fonseca. 

A  few  days  later  the  ship  reached  the  equator. 
The  customary  initiation  of  the  new  sailors,  fol- 
lowed by  the  usual  festivities  and  a  first-class 
drunken  row,  took  place.  The  captain  was  run 
down  and  trampled  upon  by  his  men,  tables  and 
chairs  were  upset,  and  the  crew  fought  one  an- 

14 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

other  with  knives.  This  quarrel  might  have 
ended  in  a  general  murder  but  for  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  archbishop,  who  threw  himself 
among  the  crazy  sailors,  and  with  a  threat  of 
excommunication  drove  them  back  to  work. 
Half  a  dozen  were  locked  up,  others  were 
whipped,  and  the  ships  continued  their  voyage 
in  this  happy-go-lucky  fashion.  Then  it  ap- 
peared that  nobody  knew  exactly  where  they 
were.  Observations  finally  showed  that  the 
fleet  was  still  fifty  miles  west  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  had 
passed  the  cape  several  days  before,  but  did  not 
discover  their  error  until  a  week  later.  Then 
they  sailed  northward  until  they  reached  Mo- 
zambique, where  they  spent  two  weeks  in  order 
to  give  the  crew  a  rest  and  to  repair  the  dam- 
ages of  the  equatorial  fight.  On  the  twentieth 
of  August  they  continued  their  voyage  until  the 
serpents  which  they  saw  in  the  water  showed 
them  that  they  were  approaching  the  coast  of 
India.  From  that  time  on  luck  was  with  the 
expedition.  The  ships  reached  the  coast  near 
the  town  of  destination.     After  a  remarkably 

15 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

short  passage  of  only  five  months  and  thirteen 
days  the  fleet  landed  safely  in  Goa. 

Jan  Huygen  was  very  proud  of  the  record  of 
his  ship.  Only  thirty  people  had  died  on  the 
voyage.  It  is  true  that  all  the  people  on  board 
had  been  under  a  doctor's  care,  and  every  one  of 
the  sailors  and  passengers  had  been  bled  a  few 
times;  but  thirty  men  buried  during  so  long  a 
voyage  was  a  mere  trifle.  In  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, if  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  men  returned  from 
an  Indian  voyage,  the  trip  was  considered  suc- 
cessful. 

The  next  five  years  Jan  Huygen  spent  in  Goa 
with  his  ecclesiastical  master.  He  was  in- 
trusted with  a  great  deal  of  confidential  work, 
and  became  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the 
affairs  of  the  colony.  In  Goa  he  heard  won- 
derful tales  about  the  great  Chinese  Empire, 
many  weeks  to  the  north.  He  began  to  collect 
maps  for  an  expedition  to  that  distant  land,  but 
lack  of  funds  made  him  put  it  off,  and  he  never 
went  far  beyond  the  confines  of  the  small  Por- 
tuguese settlement. 

Unfortunately,  at  the  end  of  five  years  the 

i6 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

archbishop  died,  and  Jan  Huygen  was  without 
a  job.  As  he  had  had  news  that  his  father  had 
died,  he  now  decided  to  go  back  to  Enkhuizen 
to  see  what  he  could  do  for  his  mother.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  January  of  the  year  1589,  he  sailed 
for  home  on  board  the  good  ship  Santa  Maria. 
It  was  the  same  old  story  of  bad  management: 
The  ships  of  the  return  fleet  were  all  loaded  too 
heavily.  The  handling  of  the  cargo  was  left 
entirely  to  ship-brokers,  and  these  worthies  had 
developed  a  noble  system  of  graft.  Merchan- 
dise was  loaded  according  to  a  regular  tariff  of 
bribes.  If  you  were  willing  to  pay  enough, 
your  goods  went  neatly  into  the  hold.  If  you 
did  not  give  a  certain  percentage  to  the  brokers, 
your  bags  and  bales  were  stowed  away  some- 
where on  a  corner  of  a  wharf  exposed  to  the 
rain  and  the  sea.  Very  likely,  too,  the  first 
storm  would  wash  your  valuable  possessions 
overboard. 

When  the  Santa  Maria  left,  her  decks  were 
stacked  high  with  disorderly  masses  of  colonial 
products.  The  sailors  on  duty  had  to  make  a 
path   through  this  accumulated  stuff,  and  the 

17 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

captain  lacked  the  authority  to  put  his  own  ship 
in  order.  A  few  days  out  a  cabin-boy  fell  over- 
board. The  sea  was  quiet,  and  it  would  have 
been  possible  to  save  the  child,  but  when  the 
crew  ran  for  a  boat,  it  was  found  to  be  filled 
with  heavy  boxes.  By  the  time  the  boat  was  at 
last  lowered  the  boy  had  drowned. 

The  Santa  Maria  sailed  direct  for  the  Cape. 
There  it  fell  in  with  another  vessel  called  the 
San  Thome,  and  it  now  became  a  matter  of 
.  pride  which  ship  could  round  the  cape  first. 
Severe  western  winds  made  the  Santa  Maria 
wait  several  days.  The  San  Thome,  however, 
ventured  forth  to  brave  the  gale.  When  finally 
the  storm  had  abated  and  the  Santa  Maria  had 
reached  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  bodies  and 
pieces  of  wreckage  which  floated  upon  the 
water  told  what  had  happened  to  the  other  ves- 
sel. This,  however,  was  only  the  beginning  of 
trouble.  On  the  fifth  of  March  the  Santa 
Maria  was  almost  lost.  Her  rudder  broke,  and 
it  could  not  be  repaired.  A  storm,  accompa- 
nied by  a  tropical  display  of  thunder  and  light- 
ning, broke  loose.     For  more  than  forty-eight 

i8 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

hours  the  ship  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  waves. 
The  crew  spent  the  time  on  deck  absorbed  in 
prayer.  When  little  electric  flames  began  to 
appear  upon  the  masts  and  yards  (the  so-called 
St.  Elmo's  fire,  a  spooky  phenomenon  to  all  sail- 
ors of  all  times),  they  felt  sure  that  the  end  of 
the  world  had  come.  The  captain  commanded 
all  his  men  to  pray  the  "Salvo  corpo  Sancto," 
and  this  was  done  with  great  demonstrations  of 
fervor.  The  celestial  fireworks,  however,  did 
not  abate.  On  the  contrary  the  crew  witnessed 
the  appearance  of  a  five-pointed  crown,  which 
showed  itself  upon  the  mainmast,  and  was 
hailed  with  cries  of  the  "crown  of  the  Holy 
Virgin."  After  this  final  electric  display  the 
storm  went  on  its  way. 

In  his  sober  fashion  Jan  Huygen  had  looked 
on.  He  did  not  take  much  stock  in  this  sudden 
piety,  and  called  it  "a  lot  of  of  useless  noise." 
Then  he  watched  the  men  repairing  the  rudder. 
It  was  discovered  that  there  was  no  anvil  on 
board  the  ship,  and  a  gun  was  used  as  an  anvil. 
A  pair  of  bellows  was  improvised  out  of  some 
old  skins.     With  this  contrivance  some  sort  of 

19 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

steering-gear  was  finally  rigged  up,  and  the 
voyage  was  continued.  After  that,  except  for 
occasional  and  very  sudden  squalls,  when  all  the 
sails  had  to  be  lowered  to  save  them  from  being 
blown  to  pieces,  the  Santa  Maria  was  past  her 
greatest  danger,  though  the  heavy  seas  caused 
by  a  prolonged  storm  proved  to  be  another  ob- 
stacle. No  further  progress  was  possible  until 
the  ship  had  been  lightened.  For  this  purpose 
the  large  boat  and  all  its  valuable  contents  were 
simply  thrown  overboard. 

The  recital  of  Jan  Huygen's  trip  is  a  long 
epic  of  bungling.  The  captain  did  not  know 
his  job;  the  officers  were  incompetent;  the  men 
were  unruly  and  ready  to  mutiny  at  the  slight- 
est provocation;  and  everybody  blamed  every- 
body else  for  everything  that  went  wrong.  The 
captain,  in  the  last  instance,  accused  the  good 
Lord,  Who  "would  not  allow  His  own  faithful 
people  to  pass  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  with 
their  strong  and  mighty  ships,"  while  making 
the  voyage  an  easy  one  for  "the  blasphemous 
English  heretics  with  their  little  insignificant 
schooners."     In  this  statement  there  was  more 

21 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

wisdom  than  the  captain  suspected.     The  Eng- 
lish sailors  knew  their  business  and  could  afiford 
to  take  risks.     The  Portuguese  sailors  of  that 
day  hastened  from  one  coastline  and  from  one 
island  to  the  next,  as  they  had  done  a  century 
before.     As  long  as  they  were  on  the  high  seas 
they   were    unhappy.     They    returned    to    life 
when  they  were  in  port.     Every  time  the  Santa 
Maria  passed  a  few  days  in  some  harbor  we  get 
a  recital  of  the  joys  of  that  particular  bit  of 
paradise.     If  we  are  to  believe  Portuguese  tra- 
dition, St.  Helena,  where  the  ship  passed  a  week 
of  the  month  of  May  of  the  year  1589,  was 
placed  in  its  exact  geographical  position  by  the 
Almighty  to  serve  His  faithful  children  as  a 
welcome  resting-point  upon  their  perilous  voy- 
age to  the  far  Indies.     The  island  was  full  of 
goats,  wild  pigs,  chickens,  partridges,  and  thou- 
sands of  pigeons,  all  of  which  creatures  allowed 
themselves  to  be  killed  with  the  utmost  ease, 
and  furnished  food  for  generations  of  sailors 
who  visited  those  shores. 

Indeed,  this  island  was  so  healthy  a  spot  that 
it  was  used  as  a  general  infirmary.     After  a  few 

22 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

days  on  shore  even  the  weakest  of  sufferers  was 
'  sufficiently  strong  to  catch  specimens  of  the 
wild  fauna  of  the  island.  Often,  therefore,  the 
sick  sailors  were  left  behind.  With  a  little  salt 
and  some  oil  and  a  few  spices  they  could  sup- 
port themselves  easily  until  the  next  ship  came 
along  and  picked  them  up.  We  know  what 
ailed  most  of  these  stricken  sailors.  They  suf- 
fered from  scurvy,  due  to  a  bad  diet;  but  it  took 
several  centuries  before  the  cause  of  scurvy  was 
discovered.  When  Jan  Huygen  went  to  the 
Indies  the  crew  of  every  ship  was  invariably  at- 
tacked by  this  most  painful  disease.  Therefore 
the  islands  were  of  great  importance. 

Nowadays  St.  Helena  is  no  longer  a  paradise. 
Three  centuries  ago  it  was  the  one  blessed  point 
of  relief  for  the  Indian  traders.  The  diary  of 
Jan  Huygen  tells  of  attempts  made  to  colonize 
the  island.  The  King  of  Portugal,  however, 
had  forbidden  any  settlement  upon  this  solitary 
rock.  For  a  while  it  had  harbored  a  number  of 
runaway  slaves.  Whenever  a  ship  came  near 
,  they  had  fled  to  the  mountains.  Finally,  how- 
ever, they  had  been  caught  and  taken  back  to 

23 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Portugal  and  sold.  For  a  long  time  the  island 
had  been  inhabited  by  a  pious  hermit.  He  had 
built  a  small  chapel,  and  there  the  visiting  sail- 
ors were  allowed  to  worship.  In  his  spare 
time,  however,  the  holy  man  had  hunted  goats, 
and  he  had  entered  into  an  export  business  of 
goat-skins.  Every  year  between  five  and  six 
hundred  skins  were  sold.  Then  this  ingenious 
scheme  was  discovered,  and  the  saintly  hunter 
was  sent  home. 

On  the  twenty-first  of  May  the  Santa  Maria 
continued  her  northward  course.  Again  bad 
food  and  bad  water  caused  illness  among  the 
men.  A  score  of  them  died.  Often  they  hid 
themselves  somewhere  in  the  hold,  and  had 
been  dead  for  several  days  before  they  made 
their  presence  notiiceable.  It  was  miserable 
business;  and  now,  with  a  ship  of  sick  and  dis- 
abled men,  the  Santa  Maria  was  doomed  to 
fall  in  with  three  small  British  vessels.  At 
once  there  was  a  panic  among  the  Portuguese 
sailors.  The  British  hoisted  their  pennant,  a"»d 
opened  with  a  salvo  of  guns.  The  Portuguese 
fled  below  decks,  and  the  English,  in  sport,  shot 

24 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

the  sails  to  pieces.  The  crew  of  the  Santa 
Maria  tried  to  load  their  heavy  cannon,  but 
there  was  such  a  mass  of  howling  and  swearing 
humanity  around  the  guns  that  it  took  hours  be- 
fore anything  could  be  done.  The  ships  were 
then  very  near  one  another,  and  the  British 
sailors  could  be  heard  jeering  at  the  cowardice 
of  their  prey.  But  just  when  Jan  Huygen 
thought  the  end  had  come  the  British  squadron 
veered  around  and  disappeared.  The  Santa 
Maria  then  reached  Terceira  in  the  Azores 
without  further  molestation. 

Like  all  other  truthful  chroniclers  of  his  day, 
Jan  Huygen  speculates  about  the  mysterious 
island  of  St.  Brandon.  This  blessed  isle  was 
supposed  to  be  situated  somewhere  between  the 
Azores  and  the  Canary  Islands,  but  nearer  to 
the  Canaries.  As  late  as  172 1  expeditions  were 
fitted  out  to  search  for  the  famous  spot  upon 
which  the  Irish  abbot  of  the  sixth  century  had 
located  the  promised  land  of  the  saints.  To- 
gether with  the  recital  of  another  mysterious 
bit  of  land  consisting  of  the  back  of  a  gigantic 
fish,  this  story  had  been  duly  chronicled  by  a 

25 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

succession  of  Irish  monks,  and  when  Jan  Huy- 
gen  visited  these  regions  he  was  told  of  these 
strange  islands  far  out  in  the  ocean  where  the 
first  travelers  had  discovered  a  large  and  pros- 
perous colony  of  Christians  who  spoke  an  un- 
known language  and  whose  city  could  disappear 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  ocean  if  an  enemy 
approached. 

Once  in  the  roads  of  Terceira,  however,  there 
was  little  time  for  theological  investigations. 
Rumor  had  it  that  a  large  number  of  British 
ships  were  in  the  immediate  neighborhood. 
Strict  orders  had  come  from  Lisbon  that  all 
Portuguese  and  Spanish  ships  must  stay  in  port 
under  protection  of  the  guns  of  the  fortifica- 
tions. Just  a  year  before  that  the  Armada  had 
started  out  for  the  conquest  of  England  and  the 
Low  Countries.  The  Invincible  Armada  had 
been  destroyed  by  the  Lord,  the  British,  and  the 
Dutch.  Now  the  tables  had  been  turned,  and 
the  Dutch  and  British  vessels  were  attacking 
the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  colonies.  The 
story  of  inefficient  navigation  is  here  supple- 
mented by  a  recital  of  bad  military  manage- 

26 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

ment.  The  roads  of  Terceira  were  very  dan- 
gerous. In  ordinary  times  no  ships  were  al- 
lowed to  anchor  there.  A  very  large  number 
of  vessels  were  now  huddled  together  in  too 
small  a  space.  These  vessels  were  poorly 
manned,  for  the  Portuguese  sailors,  whenever 
they  arrived  in  port,  went  ashore  and  left  the 
care  of  their  ship  to  a  few  cabin-boys  and  black 
slaves.  The  unexpected  happened;  during  the 
night  of  the  fourth  of  August  a  violent  storm 
swept  over  the  roads.  The  ships  were  thrown 
together  with  such  violence  that  a  large  num- 
ber were  sunk.  In  the  town  the  bells  were 
rung,  and  the  sailors  ran  to  the  shore.  They 
could  do  nothing  but  look  on  and  see  how  their 
valuable  ships  were  driven  together  and  broken 
to  splinters,  while  pieces  of  the  cargo  were 
washed  all  over  the  shore,  to  be  stolen  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  greedy  little  town.  When 
morning  came,  the  shore  was  littered  with  silk, 
golden  coin,  china,  and  bales  of  spices.  For- 
tunately the  wind  changed  later  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  a  good  deal  of  the  cargo  was  salved. 
But  once  on  shore  it  was  immediately  confis- 

27 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

cated  by  officials  from  the  custom-house,  who 
claimed  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  royal  treasury. 
Then  there  followed  a  first-class  row  between 
the  officials  and  the  owners  of  the  goods,  who 
cursed  their  own  Government  quite  as  cheer- 
fully as  they  had  done  their  enemies  a  few  days 
before. 

To  make  a  long  story  short,  after  a  lawsuit  of 
two  years  and  a  half  the  crown  at  last  returned 
fifty  per  cent,  of  the  goods  to  the  merchants. 
The  other  half  was  retained  for  customs  duty. 
Jan  Huygen,  who  was  an  honest  man,  was  asked 
to  remain  on  the  island  and  look  after  the  in- 
terests of  the  owners  while  they  themselves  went 
to  Lisbon  to  plead  their  cause  before  the  courts. 
He  now  had  occasion  to  study  Portuguese  man- 
agement in  one  of  the  oldest  of  their  colonies. 
The  principles  of  hard  common  sense  which 
were  to  distinguish  Dutch  and  British  methods 
of  colonizing  were  entirely  absent.  Their 
place  was  taken  by  a  complicated  system  of  the- 
ological explanations.  The  disaster  that  befell 
these  islands  was  invariably  due  to  divine  Provi- 
dence.    The  local  authorities  were  always  up 

28 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

against  an  "act  of  God."  While  Jan  Huygen 
was  in  Terceira  the  colony  was  at  the  mercy  of 
the  British.  The  privateers  waited  for  all  the 
ships  that  returned  from  South  America  and 
the  Indies,  and  intercepted  these  rich  cargoes  in 
sight  of  the  Portuguese  fortifications.  When 
the  Englishmen  needed  fresh  meat  they  stole 
goats  from  the  little  islands  situated  in  the 
roads.  Finally,  after  almost  an  entire  year,  a 
Spanish-Portuguese  fleet  of  more  than  thirty 
large  ships  was  sent  out  to  protect  the  traders. 
In  a  fight  with  the  squadron  of  Admiral  How- 
ard the  ship  of  his  vice-admiral,  Grenville,  was 
sunk.  The  vice-admiral  himself,  mortally 
wounded,  was  made  a  prisoner  and  brought  on 
board  a  Spanish  man-of-war.  There  he  died. 
His  body  was  thrown  overboard  without  fur- 
ther ceremonies. 

At  once,  so  the  story  ran,  a  violent  storm  had 
broken  loose.  This  storm  lasted  a  week.  It 
came  suddenly,  and  when  the  wind  fell  only 
thirty  ships  were  left  out  of  a  total  of  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  that  had  been  in  the  harbors  of 
the  islands.     The  damage  was  so  great  that  the 

29 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

loss  of  the  Armada  itself  seemed  insignificant. 
Of  course  it  was  all  the  fault  of  the  good  Lord. 
He  had  deserted  His  own  people  and  had- gone 
over  to  the  side  of  the  heretics.  He  had  sent 
this  hurricane  to  punish  the  unceremonious  way 
in  which  dead  Grenville  had  been  thrown  into 
the  ocean.  And  of  course  this  unbelieving 
Britisher  himself  had  at  once  descended  into 
Hades,  had  called  upon  all  the  servants  of  the 
black  demon  to  help  him,  and  had  urged  this 
revenge.  Evidently  the  thing  worked  both 
ways. 

This  clever  argument  did  not  in  the  least 
help  the  unfortunate  owners  of  the  shipwrecked 
merchandise.  One  fine  day  they  were  in- 
formed that  they  could  no  longer  expect  royal 
protection  for  the  future.  Jan  Huygen  was 
told  to  come  to  Lisbon  as  best  he  could.  He 
finally  found  a  ship,  and  after  an  absence  of 
nine  years  returned  to  Lisbon.  On  his  trip  to 
Holland  he  was  almost  killed  in  a  collision. 
Finally,  within  sight  of  his  native  land,  he  was 
nearly  wrecked  on  the  banks  of  one  of  the 
North  Sea  islands.     On  the  third  of  September 

30 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

of  the  year  1592,  however,  after  an  absence  of 
thirteen  years,  he  returned  safely  to  Enkhuizen. 
His  mother,  brother,  and  sisters  were  there  to 
welcome  him. 

He  did  not  at  once  rush  into  print.  It  was 
not  necessary.  The  news  of  his  return  spread 
quickly  to  the  offices  of  the  Amsterdam  mer- 
chants. They  had  been  very  active  during  the 
last  dozen  years  and  they  had  conducted  an  ef- 
ficient secret  organization  in  Portugal,  trying 
to  buy  up  maps  and  books  of  navigation  and, 
perhaps,  even  a  pilot  or  two.  They  knew  a  few 
things,  and  guessed  at  many  others.  A  man 
who  had  actually  been  there,  who  knew  con- 
crete facts  where  other  people  suspected,  such  a 
man  was  worth  while.  Jan  Huygen  became 
consulting  pilot  to  Dutch  capital. 

The  Dutch  merchants  still  found  themselves 
in  a  very  difficult  position.  They  had  to  enter 
this  field  of  activity  when  their  predecessors  had 
been  at  work  for  almost  two  centuries.  These 
predecessors,  judging  by  outward  evidences, 
were  fast  losing  both  ability  and  energy.  But 
prestige  before  an  old  and  well-established  name 

31 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

is  a  strong  influence  in  the  calculations  of  men. 
Those  who  directed  the  new  Dutch  Republic 
did  not  lack  courage.  All  the  same,  they 
shrank  from  open  and  direct  competition  with 
the  mighty  Spanish  Empire.  Besides,  there 
were  other  considerations  of  a  more  practical 
nature. 

The  Middle  Ages,  both  late  and  early,  dearly 
loved  monopoly.  Indeed,  the  entire  period  be- 
tween the  days  of  the  old  Roman  Empire  and 
the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when 
the  French  Revolution  destroyed  the  old  system, 
was  a  time  of  monopolies  or  of  quarrels  about, 
and  for,  monopolies.  The  Dutch  traders  won- 
dered whether  they  could  not  obtain  a  little 
private  route  to  India,  something  that  should  be 
Dutch  all  along  the  line,  and  could  be  closed  at 
will  to  all  outsiders.  What  about  the  North- 
eastern Passage?  There  seem  to  have  been 
vague  rumors  about  a  water  route  along  the 
north  of  Siberia.  That  part  of  the  map  was 
but  little  known.  The  knowledge  of  Russia  had 
improved  since  the  days  when  Moscow  was  sit- 
uated upon  the  exact  spot  where  the  ocean  be- 

32 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

tween  Iceland  and  Norway  is  deepest.  The 
White  Sea  was  fairly  well  known,  and  Dutch 
traders  had  found  their  way  to  the  Russian  port 
of  Archangel.  What  lay  beyond  the  White  Sea 
was  a  matter  of  conjecture.  Whether  the  Cas- 
pian Sea,  like  the  White  Sea,  was  part  of  the 
Arctic  Sea  or  part  of  the  Indian  Ocean  no  one 
knew.  But  it  appeared  that  farther  to  the 
north,  several  days  beyond  the  North  Cape, 
there  was  a  narrow  strait  between  an  island 
which  the  Russians  called  the  New  Island 
(Nova  Zembia)  and  the  continent  of  Asia. 
This  might  prove  to  be  a  shorter  and  less  dan- 
gerous route  to  China  and  the  Indies.  Further- 
more, by  building  fortifications  on  both  sides  of 
the  narrows  between  the  island  and  the  Siberian 
coast,  the  Hollanders  would  be  the  sole  owners 
of  the  most  exclusive  route  to  India.  They 
could  then  leave  the  long  and  tedious  trip  around 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  with  its  perils  of 
storms,  scurvy,  royal  and  inquisitorial  dungeons, 
savage  negroes,  and  several  other  unpleasant  in- 
cidents, to  their  esteemed  enemies. 
The  men  who  were  most  interested  in  this 

34 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

northern  enterprise  were  two  merchants  who 
lived  in  Middleburg,  the  capital  of  the  province 
of  Zeeland.  The  better  known  of  the  two  was 
Balthasar  de  Moucheron,  an  exile  from  Ant- 
werp. When  the  Spanish  Government  recon- 
quered this  rich  town  it  had  banished  all  those 
merchants  who  refused  to  give  up  their  Luth- 
eran or  Calvinistic  convictions.  Their  wealth 
was  confiscated  by  the  state.  They  themselves 
were  forced  to  make  a  new  start  in  foreign  lands. 
The  foolishness  of  this  decree  never  seems  to 
have  dawned  upon  the  Spanish  authorities. 
They  felt  happy  that  they  had  ruined  and  exiled 
a  number  of  heretics.  What  they  did  not  un- 
derstand was  that  these  heretics  did  not  owe 
their  success  to  their  wealth,  but  to  the  sheer 
ability  of  their  minds,  and  before  long  these  pen- 
niless pilgrims  had  laid  the  foundations  for  new 
fortunes.  Then  they  strove  with  all  their  might 
to  be  revenged  upon  the  Government  which  had 
ruined  them. 

De  Moucheron,  one  of  this  large  group  which 
had  been  expelled,  had  begun  life  anew  in 
the   free   Republic   and   was   soon   among   the 

35 


y 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

greatest  promoters  of  his  day.  Of  tireless  en- 
ergy and  of  a  very  bitter  ambition,  none  too 
kindly  to  the  leading  business  men  of  his 
adopted  country,  he  got  hold  of  Jan  Huygen 
and  decided  to  try  his  luck  in  a  great  gamble. 
He  interested  several  of  the  minor  capitalists  of 
Enkhuizen,  and  on  the  fifth  of  June  of  the  year 
1594  Jan  Huygen  went  upon  his  first  polar  ex- 
ploration with  two  ships,  the  Mercurius  and 
the  Lwaan.  Without  adventure  the  ships 
passed  the  North  Cape,  sailed  along  the  coast 
of  the  Kola  peninsula,  where  Willoughby  had 
wintered  just  forty  years  before,  and  reached 
the  Straits  of  Waigat,  the  prospective  Gibraltar 
of  Dutch  aspirations.  The  conditions  of  the  ice 
were  favorable. 

On  the  first  of  August  of  the  year  1594  the 
two  ships  entered  the  Kara  Sea,  which  they 
called  the  New  North  Sea.  Then  following  the 
coast,  they  entered  Kara  Bay.  After  a  few  days 
Jan  Huygen  discovered  the  small  Kara  River, 
the  present  frontier  between  Russia  and  Siberia. 
He  mistook  it  for  the  Obi  River,  and  thought 
that  he  had  gone  sufficiently  eastward  to  be  cer- 

36 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

tain  of  the  practicability  of  the  new  route  which 
he  had  set  out  to  discover.  The  ice  had  all 
melted.  As  far  as  he  could  see  there  was  open 
water.  He  cruised  about  in  this  region  for  sev- 
eral weeks,  discovered  a  number  of  little  islands, 
and  sprinkled  the  names  of  all  his  friends  and 
his  employers  upon  capes  and  rivers  and  moun- 
tains. Finally,  contented  with  what  had  been 
accomplished,  he  returned  home.  On  the  six- 
teenth of  September  of  the  same  year  he  came 
back  to  the  roads  of  Texel. 

After  that  he  was  regarded  as  the  leader 
in  all  matters  of  navigation.  The  stadholder. 
Prince  Maurice,  who  had  succeeded  his  father 
William  after  the  latter  had  been  murdered  by 
one  of  King  Philip's  gunmen,  sent  for  Jan  Huy- 
gen  to  come  to  The  Hague  and  report  in  person 
upon  his  discoveries.  John  of  Barneveldt,  the 
clever  manager  of  all  the  financial  and  political 
interests  of  the  republic,  discussed  with  him  the 
possibility  of  a  successful  northeastern  trading 
company.  Before  another  year  was  over  Jan 
Huygen,  this  time  at  the  head  of  a  fleet  of  seven 
ships,  was  sent  northward  for  a  second  voyage. 

37 

50613 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Everybody,  from  his  Highness  the  stadholder 
down  to  the  speculatoi  who  had  risked  his  last 
pennies,  had  the  greatest  expectations.  Noth- 
ing came  of  this  expedition.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  Jan  Huygen  had  met  with  exceptionally 
favorable  weather  conditions  upon  his  first  voy- 
age ;  on  the  second  he  came  in  for  the  customary 
storms  and  blizzards.  His  ships  were  frozen  in 
the  ice,  and  for  weeks  they  could  not  move. 
Scurvy  attacked  the  crew  and  many  men  died. 

In  October  of  the  same  year  he  was  back  in 
Holland.  The  only  result  of  the  costly  expedi- 
tion was  a  dead  whale  that  the  captain  had  towed 
home  as  an  exhibit  of  his  good  intentions.  He 
was  still  a  young  man,  not  more  than  forty-five, 
but  he  had  had  his  share  of  adventures.  He  did 
not  join  the  third  trip  to  the  North  in  the  next 
year,  about  which  we  shall  give  a  detailed  ac- 
count in  our  next  chapter.  He  was  appointed 
treasurer  of  his  native  city.  There  he  lived  as 
its  most  respected  citizen  until  the  year  1611, 
when  he  died  and  was  buried  with  great  solem- 
nity.    His  work  had  been  done. 

In  the  year  1595  the  "Itinerary  of  His  Voyage 

38 


JAN  HUYGEN  VAN  LINSCHOTEN 

to  the  East  Indies"  had  been  published.  By  this 
book  he  will  always  be  remembered.  For  a 
century  it  provided  a  practical  handbook  of  nav- 
igation which  guided  the  Dutch  traders  to  the 
Indies,  allowed  them  to  attack  the  Spaniards 
and  Portuguese  in  their  most  vulnerable  spot, 
and  gave  them  the  opportunity  to  found  a  co- 
lonial empire  which  has  lasted  to  this  very  day. 


39 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Out  of  this  expedition  grew  the  famous  voy- 
age of  Barendsz  and  Heemskerk  to  Nova  Zem- 
bla,  the  first  polar  expedition  of  which  we  pos- 
sess a  precise  account.  There  were  two  ships. 
They  were  small  vessels,  for  no  one  wished  to 
risk  a  large  investment  on  an  expedition  to  the 
dangerous  region  of  ice  and  snow.  Fewer  than 
fifty  men  took  part,  and  all  had  been  selected 
with  great  care.  Married  men  were  not  taken; 
for  this  expedition  might  last  many  years,  and 
it  must  not  be  spoiled  by  the  homesick  discon- 
tent of  fathers  of  families. 

Jan  Corneliszoon  de  Ryp  was  captain  of  the 
smaller  vessel.  The  other  one  was  commanded 
by  Jacob  van  Heemskerk,  a  remarkable  man,  an 
able  sailor  who  belonged  to  an  excellent  family 
and  entered  the  merchant  marine  at  a  time  when 
the  sea  was  reserved  for  those  who  left  shore 
for  the  benefit  of  civic  peace  and  sobriety.  He 
had  enjoyed  a  good  education,  knew  something 
about  scientific  matters,  and  had  been  in  the 
Arctic  a  year  before  with  the  last  and  unfortu- 
nate expedition  of  Linschoten.  The  real  leader 
of  this  expedition,  however,  was  a  very  simple 

44 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

fellow,  a  pilot  by  the  name  of  Willem,  the  son  of 
Barend  (Barendsz,  as  it  is  written  in  Dutch). 
He  was  born  on  the  island  of  Terschelling  and 
had  been  familiar  with  winds  and  tides  since 
early  childhood.  Barendsz  had  two  Northern 
expeditions  to  his  credit,  and  had  seen  as  much 
of  the  coast  of  Siberia  as  anybody  in  the  country. 
A  man  of  great  resource  and  personal  courage, 
combined  with  a  weird  ability  to  guess  his  ap- 
proximate whereabouts,  he  guided  the  expedi- 
tion safely  through  its  worst  perils.  He  died  in 
a  small  open  boat  in  the  Arctic  Sea.  Without 
his  devoted  services  none  of  the  men  who  were 
with  him  would  ever  have  seen  his  country 
again. 

There  was  one  other  member  of  the  ship's 
staff  who  must  be  mentioned  before  the  story  of 
the  trip  itself  is  told.  That  was  the  ship's  doc- 
tor. Officially  he  was  known  as  the  ship's  bar- 
ber, for  the  professions  of  cutting  whiskers  and 
bleeding  people  were  combined  in  those  happy 
days.  De  Veer  was  a  versatile  character.  He 
played  the  flute,  organized  amateur  theatrical 
performances,  kept  everybody  happy,  and  finally 

45 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

he  wrote  the  itinerary  of  the  trip,  of  which  we 
shall  translate  the  most  important  part. 

From  former  expeditions  the  sailors  had 
learned  what  to  take  with  them  and  what  to 
leave  at  home.  Unfortunately,  contractors,  then 
as  now,  were  apt  to  be  scoundrels,  and  the  pro- 
visions were  not  up  to  the  specifications.  Dur- 
ing the  long  night  of  the  Arctic  winter  men's 
lives  depended  upon  the  biscuits  that  had  been 
ordered  in  Amsterdam,  and  these  were  found  to 
be  lacking  in  both  quality  and  quantity.  There 
were  more  complaints  of  the  same  nature.  As 
the  leaders  of  the  expedition  fully  expected  to 
reach  China,  they  took  a  fair-sized  cargo  of  trad- 
ing material,  so  that  the  Hollanders  might  have 
something  to  offer  the  heathen  Chinee  in  ex- 
change for  the  riches  of  paradise  which  this  dis- 
tant and  mysterious  land  was  said  to  possess.  On 
the  eighteenth  of  May  everything  was  ready. 
Without  any  difficulty  the  Arctic  Circle  was 
soon  reached  and  passed.  Then  the  trouble 
began.  When  two  Dutch  sailors  of  great  abil- 
ity and  equal  stubbornness  disagree  about  points 
of  the  compass  there  Is  little  chance  for  an  agree- 

46 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

ment.  The  astronomical  instruments  of  that  day- 
allowed  certain  calculations,  but  in  a  rather  re- 
stricted field.  As  long  as  land  was  near  it  was 
possible  to  sail  with  a  certain- degree  of  precision, 
but  when  they  were  far  away  from  any  solid  in- 
dications of  charted  islands  and  continent  the 


captains  of  that  day  were  often  completely  at  a 
loss  as  to  their  exact  whereabouts. 

The  reason  why  two  of  the  previous  expedi- 
tions had  failed  was  known:  the  ships  had  been 
driven  into  a  blind  alley  called  the  Kara  Sea. 
In  order  to  avoid  a  repetition  of  that  occurrence 
it  was  deemed  necessary  to  try  a  more  northern 

47 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

course.  Barendsz,  however,  wanted  to  go  due 
northeast,  while  De  Ryp  favored  a  course  more 
to  the  west.  For  the  moment  the  two  captains 
compromised  and  stayed  together.  On  the  fifth 
of  June  the  sailor  on  watch  in  the  crow's-nest 
called  out  that  he  saw  a  lot  of  swans.  The 
swans  were  soon  found  to  be  ice,  the  first  that 
was  seen  that  year. 

Four  days  later  a  new  island  was  discovered. 
Barendsz  thought  it  must  be  part  of  Greenland. 
After  all,  he  argued,  he  had  been  right;  the  ships 
had  been  driven  too  far  westward.  De  Ryp  de- 
nied this,  and  his  calculation  proved  to  be  true. 
The  ships  were  still  far  away  from  Greenland. 
The  islands  belonged  to  the  Spitzbergen  Archi- 
pelago. On  the  nineteenth  of  June  they  dis- 
covered Spitzbergen.  The  name  (steep  moun- 
tains) describes  the  island.  An  expedition  was 
sent  ashore,  after  which  we  get  the  first  recital 
of  one  of  the  endless  fights  with  bears  that 
greatly  frightened  the  good  people  in  those  days 
of  blunderbusses.  Nowadays  polar  bears,  while 
still  far  removed  from  harmless  kittens,  ofifer  no 
grave  danger  to  modern  guns.     But  the  bullets 

48 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

of  the  small  cannon  which  four  centuries  ago 
did  service  as  a  rifle  refused  to  penetrate  the 
thick  hide  of  a  polar  bear.  The  pictures  of  De 
Veer's  book  indicate  that  these  hungry  mammals 
were  not  destroyed  until  they  had  been  attacked 
by  half  a  dozen  men  with  gunpowder,  axes, 
spears,  and  meat-choppers. 

A  very  interesting  discovery  was  made  on  this 
new  island.  Every  winter  wild  geese  came  to 
the  Dutch  island  of  the  North  Sea.  Four  cen- 
turies ago  they  were  the  subject  of  vague  ornith- 
ological speculations,  for,  according  to  the  best 
authorities  of  the  day,  these  geese  did  not  behave 
like  chickens  and  other  fowl,  which  brought  up 
their  families  out  of  a  corresponding  number  of 
eggs.  No,  their  chicks  grew  upon  regular  trees 
in  the  form  of  wild  nuts.  After  a  while  these 
nuts  tumbled  into  the  sea  and  then  became  geese. 
Barendsz  killed  some  of  the  birds  and  he  also 
opened  their  eggs.  There  were  the  young 
chicks!  The  old  myth  was  destroyed.  "But," 
as  he  pleasantly  remarked,  "it  is  not  our  fault  that 
we  have  not  known  this  before,  when  these  birds 
insist  upon  breeding  so  far  northward." 

49 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  June,  Spitzbergen  was 
left  behind,  and  once  more  a  dispute  broke  out 
between  the  two  skippers  over  the  old  question  of 


the  course  which  was  to  be  taken.  Like  good 
Dutchmen,  they  decided  that  each  should  go  his 
own  way.  De  Ryp  preferred  to  try  his  luck 
farther  to  the  north.  Barendsz  and  Heemskerk 
decided  to  go  southward.  They  said  farewell 
to  their  comrades,  and  on  the  seventeenth  of  July 
reached  the  coast  of  Nova  Zembla.  The  coast 
of  the  island  was  still  little  known;  therefore  the 
usual  expediency  of  that  day  was  followed. 
They  kept  close  to  the  land  and  sailed  until  at 

50 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

last  they  should  find  some  channel  that  would 
allow  them  to  pass  through  into  the  next  sea. 
They  discovered  no  channel,  but  on  the  sixth  of 
August  the  northern  point  of  Nova  Zembla, 
Cape  Nassau,  was  reached.  There  was  a  great 
deal  of  ice,  but  after  a  few  days  open  water  ap- 
peared. 

The  voyage  was  then  continued.  Their 
course  then  seemed  easy.  Following  the  east- 
ern coast  downward  they  were  bound  to  reach 
the  Strait  of  Kara.  Avoiding  the  Kara  Sea, 
they  made  for  the  river  Obi  and  hoped  that  all 
would  be  well.  But  before  the  ship  had  gone 
many  days  the  cold  weather  of  winter  set  in, 
and  before  the  end  of  August  the  ship  was  sol- 
idly frozen  into  the  ice.  Many  attempts  were 
made  to  dig  it  out  and  push  it  into  the  open 
water.  The  men  worked  desperately;  but  the 
moment  they  had  sawed  a  channel  through  the 
heavy  ice  to  the  open  sea  more  ice-fields  ap- 
peared, and  they  had  to  begin  all  over  again. 
On  the  thirtieth  of  August  a  particularly  heavy 
frost  finally  lifted  the  little  wooden  ship  clear 
out  of  the  ice.     Then  came  a  few  days  of  thaw, 

51 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

during  which  they  hoped  to  get  the  vessel  back 
into  shape  and  into  the  water.  But  the  next 
night  there  was  a  repetition  of  the  terrible 
creakings.  The  ship  groaned  as  if  it  were  in 
great  agony,  and  all  the  men  rushed  on  shore. 

The  prospect  of  spending  the  winter  in  this 
desolate  spot  began  to  be  more  than  an  unspoken 
fear.  Any  night  the  vessel  might  be  destroyed 
by  the  violent  pressure  of  the  ice.  An  experi- 
enced captain  knew  what  to  do  in  such  circum- 
stances. All  provisions  were  taken  on  shore, 
and  the  lifeboats  were  safely  placed  on  the  dry 
land.  They  would  be  necessary  the  next  sum- 
mer to  reach  the  continent.  Another  week 
passed,  and  the  situation  was  as  uncertain  as  be- 
fore. By  the  middle  of  September,  however, 
all  hope  had  to  be  given  up.  The  expedition 
was  condemned  to  spend  the  winter  in  the  Arc- 
tic. The  ship's  carpenter  became  a  man  of  im- 
portance. Near  the  small  bay  into  which  the 
vessel  had  been  driven  he  found  a  favorable  spot 
for  a  house.  A  little  river  near  by  provided 
fresh  water.  On  the  whole  it  was  an  advan- 
tageous spot  for  shipwrecked  sailors,  for  a  short 

52 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

distance  towards  the  north  there  was  a  low 
promontory.  The  western  winds  had  carried 
heavy  trees  and  pieces  of  wood  from  the  Si- 


berian coast,  and  this  promontory  had  caught 
them.  They  were  neatly  frozen  in  the  ice. 
All  the  men  needed  to  do  was  to  take  these  trees 
out  of  their  cold  storage  and  drag  them  ashore 
which,  however,  did  not  prove  to  be  so  easy  a 
task  as  it  sounds.  There  were  only  seventeen 
men  on  the  ship,  and  two  of  them  were  too  ill 
to  do  any  work.  The  others  were  not  familiar 
with  the  problem  of  how  to  saw  and  plane 
water-soaked  and  frozen  logs  into  planks.    Even 

53 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

when  this  had  been  done  the  wood  must  be 
hauled  a  considerable  distance  on  home-made 
sleighs,  clumsy  affairs,  and  very  heavy  on  the 
soft  snow  of  the  early  winter. 

Unfortunately,  after  two  weeks  the  carpenter 
of  the  expedition  suddenly  died.  It  was  not  easy 
to  give  him  decent  Christian  burial.  The 
ground  was  frozen  so  hard  that  spades  and  axes 
could  not  dig  a  grave;  so  the  carpenter  was 
reverently  laid  away  in  a  small  hollow  cut  in  the 
solid  ice  and  covered  with  snow. 

When  their  house  was  finished  it  did  not 
offer  many  of  the  comforts  of  home,  but  it  was 
a  shelter  against  the  ever-increasing  cold.  The 
roof  offered  the  greatest  difficulty  to  the  inex- 
perienced builders.  At  last  they  hit  upon  a 
scheme  that  proved  successful:  they  made  a 
wooden  framework  across  which  they  stretched 
one  of  the  ship's  sails.  This  they  covered  with  a 
layer  of  sand.  Then  the  good  Lord  deposited  a 
thick  coat  of  snow,  which  gradually  froze  and 
finally  made  an  excellent  cover  for  the  small 
wooden  cabin  which  was  solemnly  baptized 
"Safe  Haven."     There  were  no  windows — fresh 

54 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

air  had  not  yet  been  invented — and  what  was 
the  use  of  windows  after  the  sun  had  once  disap- 
peared? There  was  one  door,  and  a  hole  in  the 
roof  served  as  a  chimney.  To  make  a  better 
draft  for  the  fire  of  driftwood  which  was  kept 
burning  day  and  night  in  the  middle  of  the  cabin 
floor,  a  large  empty  barrel  was  used  for  a  smoke- 


stack. Even  then  the  room  was  full  of  smoke 
during  all  the  many  months  of  involuntary  im- 
prisonment, and  upon  one  occasion  the  lack  of 
ventilation  almost  killed  the  entire  expedition. 
While  they  were  at  work  upon  the  house  the 
men  still  spent  the  night  on  board  their  ship. 
When  morning  came,  with  their  axes  and  saws 

S5 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

and  planes  they  walked  over  to  the  house.  But 
hardly  a  day  went  by  without  a  disturbing  visit 
from  the  much-dreaded  polar  bears.  After 
some  of  the  provisions  had  been  removed  from 


the  ship  to  the  house  the  bears  became  more  in- 
sistent than  ever.  Upon  one  occasion  when  the 
bears  had  gone  after  a  barrel  of  pickled  meat, 
as  shown  with  touching  accuracy  in  the  picture, 
the  concerted  action  of  three  sailors  was  neces- 
sary to  save  the  food  from  the  savage  beasts. 
Another  time,  when  Heemskerk,  De  Veer,  and 
one  of  the  sailors  were  loading  provisions  upon 
a  sleigh  they  were  suddenly  attacked  by  three 
huge  bears.     They  had  not  brought  their  guns, 

S6 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

but  they  had  two  halberds,  with  which  they  hit 
the  foremost  bear  upon  the  snout;  and  then  they 
fled  to  the  ship  and  climbed  on  board.  The 
bears  followed,  sat  down  patiently,  and  laid  siege 
to  the  ship.  The  three  men  on  board  were  help- 
less. Finally  one  of  them  hit  upon  the  idea  of 
throwing  a  stick  of  kindling-wood  at  the  bears. 
Like  a  well-trained  dog,  the  animal  that  was 
struck  chased  the  stick,  played  with  it,  and  then 
came  back  to  ask  for  further  entertainment.  At 
last  all  the  kindlingwood  laid  strewn  across  the 
ice,  and  the  bears  had  had  enough  of  this  sport. 
They  made  ready  to  storm  the  ship,  but  a  lucky 
stroke  with  a  halberd  hit  one  of  them  so  severely 
upon  the  sensitive  tip  of  his  nose  that  he  turned 
around  and  fled.  The  others  followed,  and 
Heemskerk  and  his  companions  were  saved. 

When  the  month  of  November  came  and  the 
sun  had  disappeared,  the  bears  also  took  their 
departure,  rolled  themselves  up  under  some  com- 
fortable shelter,  and  went  to  sleep  for  the  rest 
of  the  winter.  Now  the  sailors  could  wander 
about  in  peace,  for  the  only  other  animal  that 
kept  awake  all  through  the  year  was  the  polar 

57 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

fox.  He  was  a  shy  beastie  and  never  came  near 
a  human  being.  The  sailors,  however,  hunted 
him  as  best  they  could.  Not  only  did  they 
need  the  skins  for  their  winter  garments,  but 
stewed  fox  tasted  remarkably  like  the  domestic 
rabbit  and  was  an  agreeable  change  fom  the 
dreary  diet  of  salt-flesh.  In  Holland  before  the 
introduction  of  firearms  rabbits  were  caught 
with  a  net.  The  same  method  was  tried  on 
Nova  Zembla  with  the  more  subtle  fox.  Unfa- 
miliar with  the  wiles  of  man,  he  actually  al- 
lowed himself  to  be  caught  quite  easily.  Later 
on  traps  were  also  built.  But  the  method  with 
the  net  was  more  popular,  for  the  men  had  the 
greatest  aversion  to  the  fresh  air  of  the  freezing 
polar  night  and  never  left  the  house  unless  they 
were  ordered  to  do  some  work.  When  they 
went  hunting  with  the  net  they  could  pass  the 
string  that  dropped  the  mechanism  right  under 
the  door  and  stay  inside,  where  it  was  warm  and 
cheerful,  and  yet  catch  their  fox. 

On  the  sixth  of  November  the  sun  was  seen 
for  the  last  time.  On  the  seventh,  when  it  was 
quite  dark,  the  clock  stopped  suddenly  in  the 

58 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

middle  of  the  night,  and  when  the  men  got  up 
in  the  morning  they  had  lost  the  exact  time.  For 
the  rest  of  the  winter  they  were  obliged  to  guess 
at  the  approximate  hour;  not  that  it  mattered  so 
very  much,  for  life  had  become  an  endless  night : 
one  went  to  bed  and  got  up  through  the  force  of 
habit  acquired  by  thousands  of  previous  genera- 
tions. If  the  men  had  not  been  obliged  to,  they 
never  would  have  left  their  comfortable  beds. 
They  had  but  one  idea,  to  keep  warm.  The 
complaint  about  the  insufferable  cold  is  the  main 
motive  in  this  Arctic  symphony.  Lack  of  reg- 
ular exercise  was  chiefly  to  blame  for  this  ''freez- 
ing feeling" — lack  of  exercise  and  the  proper 
underwear.  It  is  true  that  the  men  dressed  in 
many  layers  of  heavy  skins,  but  their  lower  gar- 
ments, which  nowadays  play  a  great  part  in  the 
life  of  modern  explorers,  were  sadly  neglected. 
In  the  beginning  they  washed  their  shirts  regu- 
larly, but  they  found  it  impossible  to  dry  them ; 
for  just  as  soon  as  the  shirt  was  taken  out  of  the 
hot  water  it  froze  stiff.  When  they  carried  the 
frozen  garment  into  the  house  to  thaw  it  out  be- 
fore the  fire  it  was  either  singed  and  burned  in 

59 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 


tVf 


~^ '  -     —   -     -f:-'-^* 


spots  or  it  refused  absolutely  to  melt  back  into 
the  shape  and  aspect  of  a  proper  shirt.  Finally 
the  washing  was  given  up,  as  it  has  been  on 
many  an  expedition,  for  cleanliness  is  a  costly 
and  complicated  luxury  when  one  is  away  from 
the  beaten  track  of  civilization. 

The  walls  of  the  house  had  been  tarred  and 
calked  like  a  ship.  All  the  same,  when  the  first 
blizzards  occurred,  the  snow  blew  through  many 
cracks,  and  every  morning  the  men  were  cov- 

60 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

ered  with  a  coat  of  snow  and  ice.  Hot-water 
bottles  had  not  yet  been  invented,  but  at  night 
large  stones  were  roasted  in  the  fire  until  they 
were  hot,  and  then  were  placed  in  the  bunks 
between  the  fur  covers.  They  helped  to  keep 
the  men  warm,  and  incidentally  they  burned 
their  toes  before  they  knew  it.  Not  only  did  the 
men  suffer  in  this  way.  That  same  clock  which 
I  have  already  mentioned  at  last  succumbed  to 
the  strain  of  alternating  spells  of  heat  and  cold. 
It  began  to  go  slower  and  slower.  To  keep  it 
going  at  all,  the  weight  was  increased  every  few 
days.  At  last,  however,  a  millstone  could  not 
have  coaxed  another  second  out  of  the  poor 
mechanism.  From  that  moment  on  an  hour- 
glass was  used.  One  of  the  men  had  to  watch 
it,  and  turn  it  over  every  sixty  minutes. 

All  this  time,  while  the  men  never  ceased  their 
complaint  about  feeling  cold,  the  heating  prob- 
lem had  been  solved  by  fires  made  of  such  kin- 
dling-wood as  the  thoughtful  ocean  had  carried 
across  from  the  Siberian  coast  and  deposited 
upon  the  shore.  Finally,  however,  in  despair 
at  ever  feeling  really  warm  again,  if  only  for  a 

6i 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

short  while,  it  was  decided,  as  an  extra  treat,  to 
have  a  coal  fire.  There  was  some  coal  on  board 
the  ship,  but  it  had  been  saved  for  use  upon  the 
homeward  trip  in  the  spring,  when  the  men 
would  be  obliged  to  travel  in  open  boats.  The 
coal  was  brought  to  the  house.  The  worst 
cracks  in  the  walls  were  carefully  filled  with  tar 
and  rope,  and  somebody  climbed  to  the  roof  and 
closed  the  chimney;  not  an  ounce  of  the  valu- 
able heat  must  be  lost.  As  a  result  the  men  felt 
comfortable  for  the  first  time  in  many  months; 
they  also  came  very  near  losing  their  lives. 
Having  dozed  off  in  the  pleasant  heat  they  had 
not  noticed  that  their  cabin  was  filling  with 
coal-gas  until  finally  some  of  them,  feeling  un- 
comfortable, tried  to  get  up,  grew  dizzy,  and 
fainted.  Our  friend  the  barber,  possessed  of 
more  strength  than  any  of  the  others,  managed 
to  creep  to  the  door.  He  kicked  it  open  and  let 
in  the  fresh  air.  The  men  were  soon  revived, 
and  the  captain  treated  them  all  to  a  glass  of 
wine  to  celebrate  the  happy  escape.  No  further 
experiments  with  coal  were  made  during  that 
year. 

62 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

December  was  a  month  of  steady  blizzards. 
The  snow  outside  piled  up  in  huge  drifts  which 
soon  reached  to  the  roof.  The  hungry  foxes, 
attracted  by  the  smell  of  cookery  wafted  abroad 
through  the  barrel-chimney,  used  to  gallop  across 
the  roof,  and  at  night  their  dismal  and  mean  lit- 
tle bark  kept  the  men  in  their  bunks  awake. 
At  the  same  time  their  close  proximity  made 
trapping  easier,  and  the  skins  were  now  doubly 
welcome;  for  the  shoes,  bought  in  Holland,  had 
been  frozen  so  often  and  had  been  thawed  out 
too  near  the  fire  so  frequently  that  they  were 
leaking  like  sieves  and  could  no  longer  be  worn. 
New  shoes  were  cut  out  of  wood  and  covered 
with  fox-fur.  They  provided  comfortable, 
though  far  from  elegant,  footwear. 

New  Year's  day  was  a  dreary  feast,  for  all  the 
men  thought  of  home  and  were  melancholy  and 
sad.  Outside  a  terrible  snow-storm  raged.  It 
continued  for  an  entire  week.  No  one  dared  to 
go  outside  to  gather  wood,  fearing  the  wind  and 
cold  would  kill  them.  In  this  extremity  they 
were  obliged  to  burn  some  of  their  home-made 
furniture.     On  the  fifth  of  January  the  blizzard 

63 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

stopped.  The  door  was  opened,  the  cabin  was 
put  in  order,  wood  was  brought  from  the  wood- 
pile, and  then  one  of  the  men  suddenly  remem- 
bered the  date  and  how  at  home  the  feast  of  the 
Magi  was  being  celebrated  with  many  happy 
and  innocent  pastimes.  The  barber  decided  to 
organize  a  little  feast.  The  first  officer  was 
elected  to  be  ''King  of  Nova  Zembla."  He  was 
crowned  with  due  solemnity.  A  special  dinner 
of  hot  pancakes  and  rusks  soaked  in  wine  was 
served,  and  the  evening  was  such  a  success  that 
many  imagined  themselves  safely  home  in  their 
beloved  fatherland.  A  new  blizzard  reminded 
them  that  they  were  still  citizens  of  an  Arctic 
island. 

On  the  sixteenth  of  January,  however,  the  men 
who  had  been  sent  out  to  look  after  the  traps  and 
bring  in  wood  suddenly  noticed  a  glimmer  of  red 
on  the  horizon.  It  was  a  sign  of  the  returning 
sun.  The  dreary  months  of  imprisonment  were 
almost  over.  From  that  moment  the  heating 
problem  became  less  difficult.  On  the  contrary, 
the  roof  and  the  walls  now  began  to  leak,  and 
the  expedition  had  its  first  taste  of  the  thaw 

64 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

which  would  be  even  more  fatal  than  the  cold 
weather  had  proved  to  be.  As  has  been  re- 
marked, these  men  had  been  leading  a  very  un- 
healthy life.     While  it  was  still  light  outside 


they  had  sometimes  played  ball  with  the  wooden 
knob  of  the  flagpole  of  the  ship,  but  since  eady 
November  they  had  taken  no  exercise  of  any 
sort.  A  few  minutes  spent  out  of  doors  just  long 
enough  to  kill  the  foxes  in  the  traps  was  all  the 
fresh  air  they  ever  got.  Out  of  a  barrel  they  had 
made  themselves  a  bath-tub,  and  once  a  week 
every  man  in  turn  had  climbed  through  the  little 

65 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

square  opening  into  that  barrel  (see  the  picture) 
to  get  steamed  out.  But  this  mode  of  living, 
combined  with  bad  food,  brought  half  a  year  be- 
fore from  Holland,  together  with  the  large  quan- 
tity of  fox-meat,  now  caused  a  great  deal  of 
scurvy,  and  the  scurvy  caused  more  dangerous 
illness.  Barendsz,  the  man  upon  whom  they  de- 
pended to  find  the  way  home,  was  already  so 
weak  that  he  could  not  move.  He  was  kept  near 
the  fire  on  a  pile  of  bearskins.  On  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  January  another  man  who  had  been  ill 
for  some  time  suddenly  died.  His  comrades  had 
done  all  they  could  to  save  him.  They  had 
cheered  him  with  stories  of  home,  but  shortly 
after  midnight  of  that  day  he  gave  up  the  ghost. 
Early  the  next  morning  he  was  buried  near  the 
carpenter.  A  chapter  of  the  Bible  was  read,  a 
psalm  was  sung,  and  his  sorrowful  companions 
went  home  to  eat  breakfast. 

None  of  the  men  were  quite  as  strong  as  they 
had  been.  Among  other  things,  they  hated  the 
eternal  bother  of  keeping  the  entrance  to  the  door 
clear  of  snow.  Why  should  they  not  abolish  the 
door,  and  like  good  Eskimos  enter  and  leave 

66 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

their  dwelling-place  through  the  chimney? 
Heemskerk  wanted  to  try  this  new  scheme  and 
he  got  ready  to  push  himself  through  the  narrow 
barrel.  At  the  same  time  one  of  the  men  rushed 
to  the  door  to  go  out  into  the  open  and  welcome 
the  skipper  when  he  should  stick  his  head 
through  the  barrel ;  but  before  he  espied  the  emi- 
nent leader  of  the  expedition  he  was  struck  by 
another  sight:  the  sun  had  appeared  above  the 
horizon.  Apparently  Barendsz,  who  had  tried 
to  figure  out  the  day  and  week  of  the  year  after 
they  had  lost  count  of  the  calendar,  had  been 
wrong  in  his  calculation.  According  to  him, 
there  were  to  be  two  weeks  more  of  darkness. 
And  now,  behold!  there  was  the  shining  orb, 
speedily  followed  by  a  matutinal  bear.  The 
lean  animal  was  at  once  killed  and  used  to  re- 
plenish the  oil  of  the  odorous  little  lamp  which 
for  more  than  three  months  had  provided  the 
only  light  inside  the  cabin. 

February  came  and  went,  but  asyet  there  were 
no  signs  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice.  During 
the  first  day  of  March  a  little  open  water  was 
seen  in  the  distance,  but  it  was  too  far  away  to 

67 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

be  of  any  value  to  the  ship.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  push  the  ship  out  of  its  heavy  coat  of 
ice,  but  the  men  at  once  complained  that  they 
were  too  weak  to  do  much  work.  Some  of  them 
had  had  their  toes  frozen  and  could  not  walk. 
Others  suffered  from  frost-bite  on  their  hands 
and  fingers  and  were  unable  to  hold  an  ax. 
When  they  went  outside  only  incessant  vigilance 
saved  them  from  the  claws  of  the  skinny  bears 
that  were  ready  to  make  up  for  the  long  winter's 
fast.  Once  a  bear  almost  ate  the  commander, 
who  was  just  able  to  jump  inside  the  house  and 
slam  the  door  on  bruin's  nose.  Another  time  a 
bear  climbed  on  the  roof,  and  when  he  could 
not  get  into  the  chimney,  he  got  hold  of  the 
barrel  and  rocked  that  architectural  contrivance 
until  he  almost  ruined  the  entire  house.  It  was 
very  spooky,  for  the  attack  took  place  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
go  out  and  shoot  the  monster. 

March  passed,  and  the  ship,  which  had  been 
seventy  yards  away  from  the  water  when  it  was 
deserted  in  the  autumn  of  1595,  was  now  more 
than  five  hundred  yards  away  from  the  open  sea. 

68 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

The  intervening  distance  was  a  huge  mass  of 
broken  ice  and  snow-drifts.  It  seemed  impos- 
sible to  drag  the  boats  quite  so  far.  When  on 
the  first  of  May  the  last  morsel  of  salt  meat  had 
been  eaten,  the  men  appeared  to  be  as  far  away 
from  salvation  as  ever.     There  was  a  general  de- 


mand that  something  be  done.  They  had  had 
enough  of  one  winter  in  the  Arctic,  and  would 
rather  risk  a  voyage  in  an  open  boat  than  another 
six  months  of  cold  bunks  and  tough  fox-stew,  and 
reading  their  Bible  by  the  light  of  a  single  oil- 
lamp. 

69 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Fortunately — and  this  is  a  great  compliment 
to  a  dozen  men  who  have  been  cooped  up  in  a 
small  cabin  for  six  months  of  dark  and  cold — 
the  spirit  of  the  sailors  had  been  excellent,  and 
discipline  had  been  well  maintained.  They  did 
not  make  any  direct  demands  upon  the  captain. 
The  question  of  going  or  staying  they  discussed 
first  of  all  with  the  sick  Barendsz,  and  he  in  turn 
mentioned  it  to  Heemskerk.  Heemskerk  him- 
self was  in  favor  of  waiting  a  short  while.  He 
reasoned  that  the  ice  might  melt  soon,  and  then 
the  ship  could  be  saved.  He,  as  captain,  was 
responsible  for  his  craft.  He  asked  that  they 
wait  two  weeks  more.  If  the  condition  of  the 
ice  was  still  unsatisfactory  at  the  end  of  that  time, 
they  would  give  up  the  ship  and  try  to  reach 
home  in  the  boats.  Meanwhile  the  men  could 
get  ready  for  the  trip.  They  set  to  work  at  once 
cleaning  and  repairing  their  fur  coats,  sharpen- 
ing their  tools,  and  covering  their  shoes  with  new 
skins  to  keep  their  feet  from  freezing  during  the 
long  weeks  in  the  open  boats. 

An  eastern  storm  on  the  last  day  of  May  filled 
their  little  harbor  with  more  ice,  and  all  hope  of 

70 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

saving  the  ship  was  given  up.  The  return  trip 
must  be  made  in  the  open  boats.  There  were 
two,  a  large  and  a  small  one.  They  had  been 
left  on  land  in  the  autumn,  and  were  now  cov- 
ered with  many  feet  of  frozen  snow.  A  first  at- 
tempt to  dig  them  out  failed.  The  men  were 
so  weak  that  they  could  not  handle  their  axes 
and  spades.  The  inevitable  bear  attacked  them, 
drove  them  post-haste  back  to  the  safe  shelter  of 
the  house,  and  so  put  an  end  to  the  first  day's 
work. 

The  next  morning  the  men  went  back  to  their 
work.  Regular  exercise  and  fresh  air  soon  gave 
them  greater  strength,  while  the  dire  warning 
of  Heemskerk  that,  unless  they  succeeded,  they 
would  be  obliged  to  end  their  days  as  citizens  of 
Nova  Zembla  provided  an  excellent  spur  to  their 
digging  enthusiasm.  The  two  boats  were  at 
last  dragged  to  the  house  to  be  repaired.  They 
were  in  very  bad  condition,  but  since  there  was 
no  further  reason  for  saving  the  ship  there  was 
sufficient  wood  with  which  to  make  good  the 
damage.  From  early  to  late  the  men  worked, 
the  only  interruptions  being  the  dinner-hour  and 

71 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

the  visits  of  the  bears.  "But,"  as  De  Veer  re- 
marked in  his  pleasant  way,  "these  animals 
probably  knew  that  we  were  to  leave  very  soon, 
and  they  wanted  to  have  a  taste  of  us  before  we 
should  have  gone  for  good."  Before  that  happy 
hour  arrived  the  expedition  was  threatened  with 
a  novel,  but  painful,  visitation.  To  vary  the 
monotonous  diet  of  bearsteak,  the  men  had  fried 
the  liver.  Three  of  them  had  eaten  of  this  dish 
and  fell  so  ill  that  all  hope  was  given  up  of  sav- 
ing their  lives.  The  others,  who  knew  that  they 
could  not  handle  the  boats  if  three  more  sailors 
were  to  die,  waited  in  great  anxiety.  For- 
tunately on  the  fourth  day  the  patients  showed 
signs  of  improvement  and  finally  recovered. 
There  were  no  further  experiments  with 
scrambled  bear's  liver. 

After  that  the  work  on  the  two  boats  pro- 
ceeded with  speed,  and  by  the  twelfth  of  June 
everything  was  ready.  The  boats,  now  rein- 
forced for  the  long  trip  across  the  open  water 
of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  had  to  be  hauled  to  the  sea, 
and  the  ever-shifting  wind  had  once  more  put 
a  high  ice-bank  between  the  open  water  and  the 

72 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

shore.  A  channel  was  cut  through  the  ice  with 
great  difficulty,  for  there  were  no  tools  for  this 
work.  After  two  days  more  the  survivors  of 
this  memorable  shipwreck  were  ready  for  the 


last  part  of  their  voyage.  Before  they  left  the 
house  Barendsz  wrote  three  letters  in  which  he 
recounted  the  adventures  of  the  expedition. 
One  of  these  letters  was  placed  in  a  powder-horn 
which  was  left  hanging  in  the  chimney,  where 
it  was  found  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  later. 
On  the  morning  of  the  fourteenth,  Barendsz 
and  another  sick  sailor  who  could  no  longer  walk 
were  carried  to  the  boats.     With   a  favorable 

73 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

wind  from  the  south  they  set  sail  for  the  northern 
cape  of  Nova  Zembla,  which  was  soon  reached. 
Then  they  turned  westward,  and  followed  the 
coast  until  they  should  reach  the  Siberian  conti- 
nent.    The   voyage   along  the  coast  was  both 


difficult  and  dangerous.  The  two  boats  were 
not  quite  as  large  as  the  life-boats  of  a  modern 
liner.  Being  still  too  weak  to  row,  the  men 
were  obliged  to  sail  between  huge  icebergs,  often 
being  caught  for  hours  in  the  midst  of  large 
ice-fields.  Sometimes  they  had  to  drag  the 
boats  upon  the  ice  while  they  hacked  a  channel 
to  open  water.  After  a  week  the  condition  of 
the  ice  forced  them  to  pull  the  boats  on  shore 
and  wait  for  several  days  before  they  could  go 

74 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

any  farther.  Great  and  tender  care  was  taken 
of  the  sick  pilot  and  the  dying  sailor,  but  those 
nights  spent  in  the  open  were  hard  on  the  suffer- 
ers. On  the  morning  of  the  twentieth  of  June 
the  sailor,  whose  name  was  Claes  Andriesz,  felt 
that  his  end  was  near.  Barendsz,  too,  said  he 
feared  that  he  would  not  last  much  longer.  His 
active  mind  kept  at  work  until  the  last.  De 
Veer,  the  barber,  had  drawn  a  map  of  the  coast, 
and  Barendsz  offered  suggestions.  Capes  and 
small  islands  off  the  coast  were  definitely  located, 
placed  in  their  correct  geographical  positions, 
and  baptized  with  sound  Dutch  names. 

The  end  of  Barendsz  came  very  suddenly. 
Without  a  word  of  warning  he  turned  his  eyes 
toward  heaven,  sighed,  and  fell  back  dead.  A 
few  hours  later  he  was  followed  by  the  faithful 
Claes.  They  were  buried  together.  Sad  at 
heart,  the  survivors  now  risked  their  lives  upon 
the  open  sea.  They  had  all  the  adventures  not 
uncommon  to  such  an  expedition.  The  boats 
were  in  a  rotten  condition ;  several  times  the 
masts  broke,  and  most  of  the  time  the  smaller 
boat  was  half  full  of  water.     The  moment  they 

75 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

reached  land  and  tried  to  get  some  rest,  there 
was  a  general  attack  by  wild  bears.  And  once 
a  sudden  break  in  a  field  of  ice  separated  the 
boats  from  the  provisions,  which  had  just  been 
unloaded.  In  their  attempt  to  get  these  back 
several  men  broke  through  the  ice.  They 
caught  cold,  and  on  the  fifth  of  July  another 
sailor,  a  relative  of  Claes,  who  had  died  with 
Barendsz,  had  to  be  buried  on  shore. 

During  all  this  misery  we  read  of  a  fine  ex- 
ample of  faithful  performance  of  duty  and  of 
devotion  to  the  interest  of  one's  employers.  You 
will  remember  that  this  expedition  had  been  sent 
out  to  reach  China  by  the  Northeast  Passage 
and  to  establish  commercial  relations  with  the 
merchants  of  the  great  heathen  kingdom.  For 
this  purpose  rich  velvets  and  other  materials 
agreeable  to  the  eyes  of  Chinamen  had  been 
loaded  onto  the  ship  when  they  left  Amsterdam. 
Heemskerk  felt  it  his  duty  to  save  these  goods, 
and  he  had  managed  to  keep  them  in  safety. 
Now  that  the  sun  shone  with  some  warmth,  the 
packages  were  opened  and  their  contents  dried. 
When  Heemskerk  came  back  to  Amsterdam  the 

76 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

materials  were  returned  to  their  owners  in  good 
condition. 

On  the  eleventh  of  June  of  the  year  1597  the 
boats  were  approaching  the  spot  where  upon  pre- 
vious voyages  large  colonies  of  geese  had  been 
found.  They  went  ashore  and  found  so  many 
eggs  that  they  did  not  know  how  to  take  them 
all  back  to  the  boats.  So  two  men  took  down 
their  breeches,  tied  the  lower  part  together  with 
a  piece  of  string,  filled  them  with  eggs,  and  car- 
ried their  loot  in  triumph  back  to  the  others  on 
board. 

That  was  almost  their  last  adventure  with 
polar  fauna,  except  for  an  attack  by  infuriated 
seals  whose  quiet  they  had  disturbed.  The  seals 
almost  upset  one  of  the  boats.  The  men  had  no 
further  difficulties,  however.  On  the  contrary, 
from  now  on  everything  was  plain  sailing;  and 
it  actually  seemed  to  them  that  the  good  Lord 
himself  had  taken  pity  upon  them  after  their 
long  and  patient  suffering,  for  whenever  they 
came  to  a  large  ice-field  it  would  suddenly  sepa- 
rate and  make  a  clear  channel  for  their  boats; 
and  when  they  were  hungry  they  found  that  the 

77 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

small  islands  were  covered  with  birds  that  were 

so  tame  that  they  waited  to  be  caught  and  killed. 

At  last,  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  July,  they 

arrived  in  open  water  where  they  discovered  a 


strong  eastern  current.  They  decided  that  they 
must  be  near  Kara  Strait.  The  next  morning 
they  hoped  to  find  out  for  certain.  When  the 
next  morning  came  they  suddenly  beheld  two 
strange  vessels  near  their  own  boat*.'  They  were 
fishing-smacks,  to  judge  by  their  shape  and  size, 
but  nothing  was  known  about  their  nationality, 
for  they  flew  no  flags,  and  it  was  well  to  be  care- 
ful in  the  year  of  grace  1597.  Therefore  a  care- 
ful approach  was  made.     To  Heemskerk's  great 

78 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

joy,  the  ships  were  manned  by  Russians  who 
had  seen  the  fleet  of  Linschoten  several  years  be- 
fore and  remembered  some  of  the  Hollanders. 
There  were  familiar  faces  on  both  sides,  and  this 
first  glimpse  of  human  beings  did  more  to  re- 
vive the  courage  of  the  men  than  the  doubtful 
food  which  the  Russians  forced  with  great  hos- 
pitality upon  their  unexpected  guests.  The  fol- 
lowing day  the  two  fishing-boats  set  sail  for  the 
west,  and  Heemskerk  followed  in  their  wake. 
But  in  the  afternoon  they  sailed  into  a  heavy  fog 
and  when  it  lifted  no  further  trace  of  the  Rus- 
sians could  be  found.  Once  more  the  two  small 
boats  were  alone,  with  lots  of  water  around  them 
and  little  hope  before  them. 

By  this  time  all  of  the  men  had  been  attacked 
by  scurvy  and  they  could  no  longer  eat  hard- 
tack, which  was  the  only  food  left  on  board. 
Divine  interference  again  saved  them.  They 
found  a  small  island  covered  with  scurvy-grass 
{Cochlearia  officinalis)  the  traditional  remedy 
for  this  painful  affliction.  Within  a  few  days 
they  all  recovered,  and  could  row  across  the 
current  of  the  straits  which  separated  them  from 

79 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

the  continent.  Here  they  found  another  Rus- 
sian ship.  Then  they  discovered  that  their  com- 
pass, on  account  of  the  proximity  of  heavy  chests 
and  boxes  covered  with  iron  rings,  had  lost  all 
track  of  the  magnetic  pole  and  that  they  were 
much  farther  toward  the  east  than  they  had  sup- 
posed. They  deliberated  whether  they  should 
continue  their  voyage  on  land  or  on  sea.  Fi- 
nally they  decided  to  stick  to  their  boats  and 
their  cargo.  Once  more  they  closely  followed 
the  coast  until  they  came  to  the  mouth  of  the 
White  Sea.  That  meant  a  vast  stretch  of  dan- 
gerous open  water,  which  must  be  crossed  at 
great  risk.  The  first  attempt  to  reach  the  other 
shore  failed.  The  two  boats  lost  sight  of  each 
other,  and  they  all  worried  about  the  fate  of 
their  comrades.  On  the  eighteenth  of  August 
the  second  boat  managed  to  reach  the  Kola  pen- 
insula after  rowing  for  more  than  thirty  hours. 
That  virtually  ends  the  adventures  of  the  men 
who  had  gone  out  with  Barendsz  and  Heems- 
kerk  to  discover  the  Northeast  Passage,  and  who 
quite  involuntarily  acted  as  the  first  polar  ex- 
plorers.    After  a  few  days  the  boats  found  each 

80 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

other,  and  together  they  reached  the  first  Rus- 
sian settlement,  where  they  found  houses  and 
warm  rooms  and  a  chance  to  get  a  decent  bath 
and  eat  from  a  table.  Their  misery  was  at  once 
forgotten.  At  heart  they  were  healthy-minded, 
simple  fellows,  and  when  for  the  first  time  after 
many  months  they  saw  some  women  they  were 
quite  happy,  although  these  women  were  Lap- 
landers and  proverbially  lacking  in  those  attri- 
butes which  we  usually  connect  with  the  idea  of 
lovely  womanhood. 

News  traveled  fast  even  in  the  dominion  of 
the  Lapp.  In  less  than  eighty  hours  a  Lap- 
lander came  running  to  the  Russian  settlement 
with  a  letter  which  had  been  written  by  De  Ryp, 
who,  half  a  year  before,  had  been  blown  into  the 
White  Sea  and  was  now  waiting  for  a  favorable 
wind  to  sail  home.  He  was  still  in  Kola,  and 
was  delighted  at  the  safe  return  of  his  colleague 
from  whom  he  had  separated  over  a  point  of 
nautical  difiference.  He  invited  the  men  to  go 
home  with  him.  The  two  small  boats  of  Heems- 
kerk's  ship  were  left  in  the  town  of  Kola  as  a 
small  souvenir  for  the  kind-hearted  Russians, 

8i 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 


the  Arctic  costumes  were  carefully  packed  away, 
to  be  shown  to  the  family  at  home,  and  on  the 
sixth  of  October  they  all  said  farewell  to  the 
Russian  coast.  Twenty-three  days  later  they  en- 
tered the  Maas.  By  way  of  Maassluis,  Delft, 
The  Hague,  and  Haarlem  they  made  their  tri- 
umphant entry  into  Amsterdam.  Dressed  in 
their  fox-skins  and  their  home-made  wooden 
shoes,  they  paraded  through  the  streets  of  the 
city.  Their  High  and  Mightinesses  the  mayors 
received  them  at  the  town  hall,  and  the  world 
was  full  of  the  fame  of  this  first  Arctic  expedi- 

82 


THE  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE 

tion.  As  for  the  practical  results,  there  were 
none,  unless  we  except  the  negative  informa- 
tion about  the  impossibility  of  the  North- 
eastern Passage.  But  nobody  cared  any  longer 
about  this  route,  for  just  two  months  be- 
fore the  first  Dutch  fleet  which  had  tried 
to  reach  the  Indies  by  way  of  the  Cape 
had  safely  returned  to  the  roads  of  Texel.  The 
Portuguese,  after  all,  had  proved  to  be  not  so 
dangerous  as  had  been  expected.  The  Indian 
native  was  quite  willing  to  welcome  the  Dutch 


83 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

trader.  And  the  Northeastern  route,  after  the 
wonderful  failures  of  a  number  of  conscientious 
expeditions,  was  given  up  for  the  well-worn  and 
well-known  route  along  the  African  coast.  The 
Arctic  was  all  right  for  the  purpose  of  hunting 
of  the  profitable  whale,  but  as  a  short  cut  to  the 
Indies  it  had  proved  an  absolute  disappoint- 
ment. 


84 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  SPITZBERGEN 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  TRAGEDY  OF  SPITZBERGEN 

BEFORE  I  tell  you  the  story  of  the  first 
voyage  to  India  I  want  to  give  a  short 
account  of  another  Dutch  expedition 
in  the  Arctic  Sea  which  ended  even  more  sadly 
than  that  of  Heemskerk  and  Barendsz. 

On  their  voyage  to  Nova  Zembla  the  two 
mariners  had  discovered  a  group  of  islands 
which  on  account  of  their  high  mountains  they 
had  called  the  "Islands  of  the  Steep  Peaks,"  or 
Spitzbergen  in  the  Dutch  language.  These  is- 
lands provided  an  excellent  center  for  the  whal- 
ing fisheries.  During  the  first  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  a  large  Dutch  fleet  went  north- 
ward every  spring  to  catch  whales.  The  dead 
animals  were  brought  to  Spitzbergen,  where  the 
blubber  was  turned  into  whale-oil,  and  the  rest 
of  the  huge  animal  was  got  ready  for  a  market 

87 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

that  was  not  as  finicky  in  its  taste  as  in  our  own 
time. 

Soon  a  small  city  was  built  around  the  large 
furnaces  and  the  rooming-houses  for  the  work- 
men. This  town  was  appropriately  called 
"Greaseville"  (in  Dutch,  Smeerenburg).  It 
consisted  of  the  usual  gathering  of  saloons,  eat- 
ing-places, and  small  stores,  that  you  might  find 
in  a  Western  American  town  during  a  mining 
boom.  When  the  autumn  came,  the  inhabitants 
moved  back  to  Holland  and  left  the  city  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  bears  and  foxes.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  owners  of  this  curious  and  some- 
what motley  settlement  were  not  always  the  first 
to  arrive  upon  the  scene  in  the  summer.  Other 
sailors,  Scotch  or  Norwegian,  had  often  visited 
Greaseville  before  they  arrived  and  either  ap- 
propriated what  they  wanted  or  destroyed  what 
they  could  not  carry  away.  As  early  as  1626  a 
plan  was  discussed  of  leaving  a  guard  on  the  isl- 
and during  the  winter.  The  men  could  live 
comfortably  in  one  of  the  houses  and  they  could 
support  themselves  by  hunting  and  fishing.  It 
was   not   a  bad   idea,   but  Nova  Zambia   still 

88 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  SPITZBERGEN 

spooked  in  people's  heads,  and  nobody  wanted 
to  try  a  winter  of  darkness  and  cold  such  as  had 
been  just  described  by  De  Veer.  But  in  the  year 
1630  eight  English  sailors  were  accidentally  left 
behind  from  a  ship,  and  next  spring  they  were 
found  little  the  worse  for  wear.  As  a  result  the 
experiment  was  at  last  made  in  the  winter  of  the 
year  1633.  Seven  men  were  left  on  Spitzbergen 
and  seven  others  on  the  Jan  Mayen,  an  island 
somewhat  to  the  west  and  farther  away  from  the 
pole.  The  seven  on  Jan  Mayen  all  died  of 
scurvy.  When  next  spring  a  fleet  came  to  re- 
lieve them  they  were  found  frozen  dead  in  their 
bunks.  On  Spitzbergen,  however,  all  the  men 
had  passed  a  comfortable  winter.  They  had  suf- 
fered a  good  deal  from  the  cold,  but  they  had 
managed  to  keep  out  in  the  open,  take  a  lot  of 
exercise,  and  pass  the  long  winter  as  cheerfully 
as  the  heavy  blizzards  and  storms  allowed.  It 
was  decided  to  leave  a  small  guard  upon  the 
island  every  year.  When  in  September  of  1634 
the  fleet  of  whalers  sailed  back  for  Holland, 
seven  new  men,  under  the  leadership  of  Adriaen 
Janzzoon,  who  came  from  Delft,  had  agreed  to 

89 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

remain  behind  and  keep  watch  over  the  little 
settlement  of  Smeerenburg.  They  were  well 
provided  with  supplies,  but  all  perished  before 
the  spring  of  the  next  year.  They  left  a  diary, 
and  from  this  we  copy  a  few  items  to  show  the 
quiet  and  resigned  courage  with  which  they  went 
to  their  death. 

"On  the  eleventh  of  September  of  the  year  of 
our  Lord  1634  the  whaling  ships  sailed  for  home. 
We  wished  them  a  happy  voyage.  We  saw  sev- 
eral whales  and  often  tried  to  get  one,  but  we  did 
not  succeed.  We  looked  for  fresh  vegetables, 
foxes,  and  bears  with  great  industry,  but  we  did 
not  find  any. 

"Between  the  twentieth  and  the  twenty-first  of 
October  the  sun  left  us.  On  the  twenty-fourth 
of  November  we  began  to  suffer  from  scurvy. 
Therefore  we  looked  for  fresh  vegetables,  foxes, 
and  bears  with  great  industry,  but  we  did  not 
succeed,  to  our  great  grief.  Therefore  we  con- 
soled each  other  that  the  good  Lord  would  pro- 
vide. On  the  second  of  December  Klaes  Florisz 
took  a  remedy  against  scurvy,  and  we  set  traps 
to  catch  foxes. 

90 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  SPITZBERGEN 

^'On  the  eleventh  of  December  Jeroen  Caroen 
also  took  a  remedy  against  scurvy,  and  we  all  be- 
gan to  eat  separately  from  each  other  because 
some  suffered  more  from  scurvy  and  others  less. 
We  looked  every  day,  trying  to  find  fresh  vege- 
tables, but  we  found  nothing.  So  we  recom- 
mended our  souls  into  the  hands  of  God. 

''On  the  twelfth  of  December  Cornells  Thysz 
took  a  remedy  for  scurvy.  On  the  twenty-third 
of  December  we  saw  our  first  bear.  Just  as  the 
cook  was  pouring  out  hot  water  from  his  kitchen 
the  bear  stood  outside  the  window,  but  when  he 
heard  a  noise  he  hastily  fled.  On  the  twenty- 
fourth  we  again  heard  a  bear,  and  we  at  once  ran 
for  him  with  three  men,  whereupon  he  stood  up- 
right on  his  hind  legs  and  looked  quite  horrible; 
but  we  shot  a  musket-ball  through  his  belly,  and 
he  began  to  groan  and  bleed  quite  badly,  and 
with  his  teeth  he  bit  one  of  our  halberds  to  pieces 
and  then  fled.  We  followed  him  with  two  lan- 
terns, but  we  could  not  get  him,  although  we 
needed  him  sorely  on  account  of  the  sick  people 
as  well  as  of  those  who  were  still  well,  for  no- 
body was  quite  without  pain.     If  things  do  not 

91 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

improve  before  long  we  shall  all  be  dead  before 
the  ships  come  back;  but  God  knows  what  isx 
best  for  us.  On  the  twenty-fifth  of  December 
Cornelis  Thysz  took  a  remedy  for  scurvy  for  the 
second  time,  for  things  were  going  badly  with 
him.  On  the  fourteenth  of  January  Adriaenv 
Janszoon  died,  being  the  first  of  the  seven  of  us 
to  go;  but  we  are  now  all  very  ill  and  have 
much  pain. 

*'0n  the  fifteenth  Fetje  Otjes  died. 

''On  the  seventeenth  Cornelis  Thysz  died. 
Next  to  God  we  had  put  our  hope  upon  him. 
We  who  were  still  alive  made  coffins  for  the 
three  dead  ones,  and  we  laid  them  into  their  cof- 
fins, although  we  were  hardly  strong  enough  to 
do  this,  and  every  day  we  are  getting  worse. 

"On  the  twenty-eighth  we  saw  the  first  fox,  but 
we  could  not  get  him.  On  the  twenty-ninth  we 
killed  our  red  dog,  and  we  ate  him  in  the  eve- 
ning. On  the  seventh  of  February  we  caught 
our  first  fox,  and  we  were  all  very  happy;  but 
it  did  not  do  us  much  good,  for  we  are  all  too 
far  gone  by  now.  We  saw  many  bears,  yes, 
sometimes  we  saw  as  many  as  three,  four,  five,  six, 

92 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  SPITZBERGEN 

ten,  twelve  at  the  same  time ;  but  we  did  not  have 
strength  enough  to  fire  a  gun,  and  even  if  we 
had  hit  a  bear,  we  could  not  have  walked  out 
to  get  him,  for  we  are  all  so  weak  that  we  can 
not  put  one  foot  before  the  other.  We  can  not 
even  eat  our  bread;  we  have  terrible  pains  all 
over  our  bodies;  and  the  worse  the  weather  is 
the  more  pain  we  have.  Many  of  us  are  losing 
blood.  Jeroan  Caroen  is  the  strongest,  and  he 
went  out  and  got  some  coals  to  make  a  fire. 

*'On  the  twenty-third  we  laid  flat  on  our  backs 
almost  all  the  time.  The  end  has  come,  and  we 
commend  our  souls  into  the  hands  of  God. 

*'On  the  twenty-fourth  we  saw  the  sun  again, 
for  which  we  praised  God,  for  we  had  not  seen 
the  sun  since  the  twentieth  or  twenty-first  of 
October  of  last  year. 

"On  the  sixth  of  February  the  four  of  us  who 
are  still  alive  are  lying  in  our  bunks.  We  would 
eat  something  if  only  one  of  us  were  strong 
enough  to  get  up  and  make  a  fire;  we  can  not 
move  from  the  pain  we  suffer.  With  folded 
hands  we  pray  to  God  to  deliver  us  from  this 
sorrowful  world.     If  it  pleases   Him  we  are 

93 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

ready;  for  we  would  prefer  not  to  stand  this  suf- 
fering much  longer  without  food  and  without  a 
fire,  and  yet  we  cannot  help  each  other,  and  each 
one  must  bear  his  own  fate  as  well  as  he  can." 

When  the  ships  came  to  Spitzbergen  in  the 
spring  of  1635  they  found  the  cabin  locked.  A 
sailor  climbed  into  the  house  through  the  attic 
window.  The  first  things  he  found  were  pieces 
of  the  red  dog  hanging  from  the  rafters,  where 
they  had  been  put  to  dry.  In  front  of  the  stairs 
he  stumbled  over  the  frozen  body  of  the  other 
dog.  Inside  the  cabin  the  seven  sailors  rested 
together.  Three  were  lying  in  open  coffins,  two 
in  one  bunk,  two  others  on  a  piece  of  sail  on  the 
floor,  all  of  them  frozen,  with  their  knees  pulled 
up  to  their  chins. 

That  was  the  last  time  an  attempt  was  made  to 
have  anybody  pass  the  winter  on  the  island. 


94 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA- 
FAILURE 


./ 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA- 
FAILURE 

IT  was  no  mean  expedition  which  set  sail  for 
the  Indies  on  the  second  of  April  of  the 
year  1595  with  four  ships,  284  men,  and 
an  investment  of  more  than  three  hundred 
thousand  guilders.  Amsterdam  merchants  had 
provided  the  capital  and  the  ships.  The  Es- 
tates of  Holland  and  a  number  of  cities  in  the 
same  province  had  sent  cannon.  With  large 
cannon  and  small  harquebus,  sixty-four  in  num- 
ber, they  were  a  fair  match  for  any  Spaniard 
or  Portuguese  who  might  wish  to  defend  his 
ancient  rights  upon  this  royal  Indian  route, 
which  ran  down  the  Atlantic,  doubled  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  and  then  made  a  straight  line 
from  the  southernmost  tip  of  Africa  to  Cape 
Comorin  on  the  Indian  peninsula  in  Asia. 

97 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

A  few  words  should  be  said  about  the  ships, 
for  each  was  to  experience  adventures  before 
reaching  the  safe  harbor  of  home  or  disappear- 
ing silently  in  a  lonely  sea.  There  were  the 
Hollandia,  proudly  called  after  the  newly  cre- 
ated sovereign  republic  of  the  seven  united 
Netherlands;  the  Mauritius,  bearing  the  name 
of  the  eminent  general  whose  scientific  strategy 
was  forcing  the  Spanish  intruder  from  one 
province  after  the  other;  the  Amsterdam,  the 
representative  of  a  city  which  in  herself  was  a 
mighty  commonwealth;  and  lastly  a  small  and 
fast  ship  called  the  Pigeon. 

Also,  since  there  were  four  ships,  there  were 
four  captains,  and  thereby  hangs  a  tale.  This 
new  Dutch  Republic  was  a  democracy  of  an 
unusually  jealous  variety,  which  is  saying  a 
great  deal.  Its  form  of  government  was  or- 
ganized disorder.  The  principle  of  divided 
power  and  governmental  wheels  within  wheels 
at  home  was  maintained  in  a  foreign  ex- 
pedition where  a  single  autocratic  head  was 
a  most  imperative  necessity.  What  happened 
during  the  voyage  was  this:  the  four  captains 

98 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

mutually  distrustful,  each  followed  his  own 
obstinate  will.  They  quarreled  among  them- 
selves, they  quarreled  with  the  four  civil  direc- 
tors who  represented  the  owners  and  the 
capitalists  in  Holland,  and  who  together  with 
the  captains  were  supposed  to  form  a  legislative 
and  executive  council  for  all  the  daily  affairs 
of  the  long  voyage.  Finally  they  quarreled 
with  the  chief  representative  of  the  commercial 
interests,  Cornelis  de  Houtman,  a  cunning 
trader  and  commercial  diplomatist  who  had 
spent  four  years  in  Lisbon  trying  to  discover 
the  secrets  of  Indian  navigation.  Indeed,  so 
great  had  been  his  zeal  to  get  hold  of  the  in- 
formation hidden  in  the  heads  of  Portuguese 
pilots  and  the  cabalistic  meaning  of  Portuguese 
charts,  that  the  authorities,  distrustful  of  this 
too  generous  foreigner,  with  his  ever-ready 
purse,  had  at  last  clapped  him  into  jail. 

Then  there  had  been  a  busy  correspondence 
with  the  distant  employers  of  this  distinguished 
foreign  gentleman.  Amsterdam  needed  Hout- 
man and  his  knowledge  of  the  Indian  route. 
The  money  which  in  the  rotten  state  of  Portu- 

99 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

gal  could  open  the  doors  of  palaces  as  well  as 
those  of  prisons  brought  the  indiscreet  pioneer 
safely  back  to  his  fatherland.  Now,  after  an- 
other year,  he  was  appointed  to  be  the  lead- 
ing spirit  of  a  powerful  small  fleet  and  the  hon- 
orable chairman  of  a  complicated  and  unruly 
council  of  captains  and  civilian  directors. 
That  is  to  say,  he  might  have  been  their  real 
leader  if  he  had  possessed  the  necessary  ability; 
but  the  task  was  too  much  for  him.  For  not 
only  was  he  obliged  to  keep  the  peace  between 
his  many  subordinate  commanders,  but  he  was 
also  obliged  to  control  the  collection  of  most 
undesirable  elements  who  made  up  the  crews 
of  this  memorable  expedition.  I  am  sorry  that 
I  have  to  say  this,  but  in  the  year  1595  people 
did  not  venture  upon  a  phantastical  voyage  to 
an  unknown  land  along  a  highly  perilous  route 
unless  there  was  some  good  reason  why  they 
should  leave  their  comfortable  native  shores. 
The  commanders  of  the  ships  and  their  chief 
officers  were  first  class  sailors.  The  lower 
grades,  too,  were  filled  with  a  fairly  sober 
crowd  of  men,  but  the  common  sailor  almost 

100 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

without  exception  belonged  to  a  class  of  worth- 
less youngsters  who  left  their  country  for  their 
country's  good  and  for  the  lasting  benefit  of 
their  family's  reputation.  There  was,  how- 
ever, a  saving  grace,  and  we  must  give  the  devil 
his  due.  Many  of  these  men  were  desperately 
brave.  When  they  were  well  commanded  they 
made  admirable  sailors  and  excellent  soldiers, 
but  the  moment  discipline  was  relaxed,  they 
ran  amuck,  killed  their  officers  or  left  them  be- 
hind on  uninhabited  islands  and  lived  upon  the 
fat  of  the  commissary  department  until  the  last 
bottle  of  gin  was  emptied  and  the  last  ham  was 
eaten.  In  most  cases  their  ship  then  ran  on  a 
hidden  cliff,  whereupon  the  democratic  sea  set- 
tled all  further  troubles  with  the  help  of  the 
ever-industrious  shark. 

When  we  realize  that  the  Dutch  colonial  em- 
pire was  conquered  with  and  by  such  men  we 
gain  a  mighty  respect  for  the  leaders  whose 
power  of  will  turned  these  wild  bands  of  ad- 
venturers into  valiant  soldiers.  And  when  we 
study  the  history  of  our  early  colonial  system  we 
no  longer  wonder  that  it  was  so  bad.     We  are 

lOI 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

gratefully  astonished  that  it  was  not  vastly 
worse. 

On  the  tenth  of  March  of  the  year  1595  the 
crews  had  been  mustered,  the  last  provisions 
had  been  taken  on  board.  Everything  was 
ready  for  the  departure.  The  riot  act  was  read 
to  the  men,  for  discipline  was  maintained  by 
means  of  the  gallows  and  the  flogging-pole,  and 
after  a  great  deal  of  gunpowder  had  been 
wasted  upon  salutes  the  ships  sailed  to  the 
Texel.  Here  they  waited  in  the  roads  for  two 
weeks,  and  then  with  a  favorable  wind  from 
the  north  set  sail  for  the  English  Channel.  All 
this  and  the  rest  of  the  story  which  is  to  follow 
we  have  copied  from  the  diary  of  Frank  van 
der  Does,  who  was  on  board  the  Hollandia  and 
who  was  one  of  the  few  officers  who  got  safely 
home. 

During  the  first  three  weeks  it  was  plain  sail- 
ing. On  the  twenty-sixth  of  April  the  fleet 
reached  one  of  the  Cape  Verde  Islands.  Some 
of  the  wild  goats  of  the  islands  that  had  so  greatly 
impressed  Linschoten  were  caught  and  divided 
among   the    sailors,    making   a   very   welcome 

102 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

change  in  their  eternal  diet  of  salted  meat.  An- 
other week  went  by,  and  two  Portuguese  freight- 
ers, loaded  to  the  gunwales,  appeared  upon  the 
horizon.  Kindly  remember  that  this  was  only 
a  few  years  after  the  desperate  struggle  with 
Spain  and  while  yet  any  ship  that  might 
be  considered  popish  was  a  welcome  prize. 
Therefore  the  instinct  of  all  the  Hollanders  on 
board  demanded  that  this  easy  booty  be  cap- 
tured. These  ships,  so  the  men  reasoned, 
would  provide  more  profit  than  an  endless, 
dreary  trip  to  an  unknown  Indian  sea;  but  for 
once  discipline  prevailed.  The  commanders 
were  under  strict  order  not  to  do  any  freeboot- 
ing  on  their  own  account.  On  the  contrary, 
they  must  make  friends  wherever  they  could. 
Accordingly,  the  Dutch  admiral  gave  the  Por- 
tuguese a  couple  of  hams,  and  the  Portuguese 
returned  the  favor  with  a  few  jars  of  preserved 
fruit.  Then  the  two  squadrons  separated,  and 
the  Dutch  fleet  went  southward. 

In  the  end  of  June  the  ships  passed  the 
equator,  and  scurvy  made  its  customary  appear- 
ance   among    the    men.     The    suspicion    that 

103 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

scurvy  might  have  something  to  do  with  the 
lack  of  certain  elements  in  the  daily  food  had 
begun  to  dawn  upon  the  sailors  of  that  time. 
Of  course  it  was  quite  impossible  for  them  to 
carry  fresh  solid  food  in  their  little  and  ill- 
ventilated  ships,  but  they  could  take  fluids. 
Water  was  never  drunk  by  sailors  of  that  day. 
It  spoiled  too  easily  in  the  primitive  tanks. 
Beer  was  the  customary  beverage.  This  time, 
however,  a  large  supply  of  wine  had  been  taken 
along,  and  when  they  reached  the  tropics  each 
of  the  sailors  got  a  pint  of  wine  per  day  as  a 
remedy  or,  rather,  a  preventive  of  the  dreaded 
disease.  But  it  increased  rapidly,  and  with  a 
feeling  of  deep  relief  the  sailors  welcomed  the 
appearance  of  wild  birds,  which  indicated  that 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  must  be  near.  Early 
in  August  they  sailed  past  the  southern  point  of 
the  African  continent,  and  dropped  anchor  in  a 
small  bay  near  the  spot  where  now  the  town  of 
Port  Elizabeth  is  situated.  Here  our  friend 
Van  der  Does  was  sent  on  shore  with  two  boats 
to  find  fresh  water.  His  first  attempt  at  a  land- 
ing did  not  succeed.     The  boats  got  into  a  very 

104 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

heavy  surf.  They  were  attacked  by  a  couple 
of  playful  whales,  and  on  the  shore  excited 
natives,  reputed  to  be  cannibals,  danced  about 
in  gleeful  anticipation.  A  storm  broke  loose, 
and  for  almost  an  entire  day  the  men  floated 
helplessly  on  the  angry  waves.  When  at  last 
they  returned  to  the  ship  the  other  sailors  had 
already  given  them  up  as  lost. 

The  next  day  the  weather  was  more  favora- 
ble, and  they  managed  to  reach  the  shore,  where 
they  made  friends  with  the  natives.  Accord- 
ing to  the  description,  these  must  have  been 
Hottentots.  They  made  a  very  bad  impression. 
The  Hottentot,  then  as  now,  was  smallish  and 
very  ugly,  with  a  lot  of  black  hair  that  looked 
as  if  it  had  been  singed.  In  short,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  sixteenth  century  they  looked  like 
people  who  had  been  hanging  on  the  gallows 
for  a  long  time  and  had  shriveled  into  the  leath- 
ern caricature  of  a  man.  A  dirty  piece  of  skin 
served  them  as  clothing,  and  their  language 
sounded  to  the  Dutch  sailors  like  the  cackling 
of  a  herd  of  angry  turkeys.  As  for  their  man- 
ners, they  were  beastly.     When  they  killed  an 

105 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

animal,  they  ate  it  raw,  both  insides  and  out- 
sides.  Perhaps  they  stopped  long  enough  to 
scrape  some  of  the  dirt  off  with  their  fingers, 
but  usually  they  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  cook 


their  food.  Furthermore — this,  however,  so 
far  was  only  a  suspicion — they  were  said  to  be 
cannibals  and  ate  their  own  kind. 

The  happy  Hottentot  still  lived  in  the  Stone 
Age,  and  these  first  European  traders  were  a  ver- 
itable godsend  to  a  people  obliged  to  hunt  with 
stone  arrows.  The  expedition  did  not  fail  to 
discover  this,  and  for  a  few  knives  and  a  few 

io6 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

simple  iron  objects  they  received  all  the  cows 
and  sheep  they  wanted.  And,  to  our  great  joy, 
we  get  our  first  glimpse  of  that  most  amusing 
and  clownish  of  all  living  creatures,  the  penguin. 
The  penguin  has  risen  in  the  social  scale  of  wild 
birds  since  he  has  become  one  of  the  chief  at- 
tractions of  the  moving-pictures.  In  the  year 
1595  he  was  every  bit  as  silly  and  absurd  an  ani- 
mal as  he  is  now,  when  he  wanders  forth  to  make 
friends  with  the  sailors  of  our  South  Polar  ex- 
peditions. Van  der  Does  hardly  knew  what  to 
make  of  this  strange  creature  which  has  wings, 
yet  cannot  fly,  and  whose  feathers  look  like  the 
smooth  skin  of  a  seal.  Strangest  of  all,  this  wild 
animal  was  found  to  be  so  tame  that  the  sailors 
had  to  box  their  ears  before  they  could  force  a 
narrow  path  through  the  dense  crowds  of  excited 
birds. 

On  the  eleventh  of  August  the  ships  left  the 
safe  harbor.  Their  original  plan  had  been  to 
cross  the  Indian  Ocean  from  this  point  and  to 
make  directly  for  the  Indian  islands,  but  there 
had  been  so  much  illness  among  the  crew  that 
the  plan  had  to  be  given  up.     They  decided  to 

107 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

call  at  Madagascar  first  of  all.  There  they 
hoped  to  find  an  abundance  of  fresh  fruit  and  to 
spend  some  weeks  in  which  to  allow  the  sick  peo- 
ple to  recover  completely  before  they  ventured, 
into  the  actual  domains  of  the  Portuguese. 

Unfortunately,  the  navigating  methods  of  that 
day  were  still  very  primitive.  A  profound  trust 
in  the  Lord  made  up  for  a  lack  of  knowledge  of 
the  compass.  The  good  Lord  in  his  infinite 
mercy  usually  guided  the  ship  until  it  reached 
some  shore  or  other.  Then  the  navigator  set  to 
work  and  wormed  his  way  either  upward  or 
downward  until  at  last  he  struck  the  spot  which 
he  had  been  trying  to  reach  all  the  time  and 
thanked  divine  Providence  for  his  luck.  The 
particular  bay  renowned  for  its  fresh  water  and 
vegetables,  that  the  expedition  hoped  to  reach 
was  situated  on  the  east  coast  of  Madagascar, 
but  a  small  gale  blew  the  ships  to  the  westward. 
They  could  not  reach  the  southern  cape,  and 
they  were  forced  to  take  whatever  the  western 
coast  could  provide.  That  was  little  enough. 
There  was  an  abundance  of  wild  natives.  Upon 
one  occasion  the  natives  caught  a  landing  party 

io8 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

and  stripped  them  of  all  their  arms  and  clothes 
before  they  allowed  them  to  return  to  their  ships. 
But  there  were  no  wild  fruit-trees,  and  upon 
these  now  depended  the  lives  of  the  members  of 
the  expedition. 

Seventy  sailors  were  dead.     Worst  of  all,  the 
captain  of  the  Hollandia,  Jan   Dignumsz   by 


name,  the  most  energetic  of  the  leaders  and  fa- 
mous for  his  discipline,  had  also  died.  A  small 
island  was  used  as  a  cemetery,  and  was  baptized 
Deadmen's  Land,  where  rested  one-quarter  of 
the  men  who  had  left  Holland.  The  situation 
was  far  from  pleasant  when  the  Pigeon,  which 
had  been  sent  out  to  reconnoiter,  came  back  with 

109 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

good  tidings.  A  tribe  of  natives  had  been  found 
that  was  willing  to  enter  into  peaceful  trade  with 
the  Hollanders  and  to  sell  their  cattle  in  ex- 
change for  knives  and  beads.  It  was  almost  too 
good  to  be  true.  For  a  single  tin  spoon  these 
simple  people  would  give  an  entire  ox  or  four 
sheep.  A  steel  knife  induced  them  to  offer  one 
of  their  daughters  as  a  slave. 

At  this  spot  the  sick  people  were  landed,  to 
be  tended  on  shore.  Soon  the  misery  was  for- 
gotten in  the  contemplation  of  an  abundance  of 
wild  monkeys,  which  competed  with  the  natives 
in  the  execution  of  wild  and  curious  dances  and 
which  when  roasted  on  hot  coals  made  a  fine 
dish.  This  idyl,  however,  did  not  last  long. 
The  "pious  life"  of  the  sailors  and  their  attitude 
toward  the  natives  soon  caused  considerable 
friction.  One  night  the  natives  attacked  the 
camp  where  the  sick  men  slept.  The  Holland- 
ers, from  their  side,  took  four  young  natives 
to  their  ships  and  kept  them  there  as  prisoners. 
The  four  of  course  tried  to  escape.  One  was 
drowned,  pulled  down  by  his  heavy  chains. 
Two  others  hid  themselves  in  a  small  boat  and 

no 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

were  recaptured  the  next  day.  A  few  days  after 
this  event  the  mate  of  one  of  the  ships  and 
another  sailor  went  on  shore  and  tried  to  buy  a 
cow.  They  were  attacked.  The  sailor  was 
mortally  wounded,  and  the  mate  had  his  throat 
cut.  In  revenge  the  Hollanders  shot  one  of  the 
natives  and  burned  down  a  few  villages.  It  is  a 
sad  story,  but  we  shall  often  have  to  tell  of  this 
sort  of  thing  when  the  white  man  made  his  first 
appearance  among  his  fellow-creatures  of  a  dif- 
ferent hue. 

After  this  adventure  the  council  of  captains 
decided  to  proceed  upon  the  voyage  without  fur- 
ther delay.  On  the  thirteenth  of  December  the 
fleet  started  upon  the  last  stretch  of  water  which 
separated  it  from  the  island  of  Java.  After  two 
weeks,  however,  scurvy  once  more  played  such 
havoc  among  the  sailors  that  the  ships  were 
obliged  to  sail  back  to  Madagascar.  They 
found  the  small  island  called  Santa  Maria  on 
the  east  coast.  The  natives  here  were  more 
civilized,  there  was  an  abundance  of  fresh  food, 
and  the  sick  people  recovered  in  a  short  time. 
Except  for  a  sufficient  supply  of  water,  the  ex- 

III 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

pedition  was  ready  for  the  last  thousand  miles 
across  the  Indian  Ocean.  Santa  Maria,  how- 
ever, did  not  provide  enough  water. 

Once  more  a  sloop  was  sent  out  to  reconnoiter. 
In  the  Bay  of  Saint  Antongil,  on  the  main  island, 
they  discovered  a  small  river,  and  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  January  the  four  ships  reached  this  bay. 
They  started  filling  their  water-kegs  when  on  the 
third  of  February  a  terrible  storm  drove  the 
Hollandia  on  a  shoal  and  almost  wrecked  the 
ship.  During  the  attempts  at  getting  her  afloat 
two  of  her  boats  were  swept  away  and  were 
washed  on  shore.  The  next  morning  a  sloop 
was  sent  after  these  boats,  but  during  the  night 
the  natives,  in  their  desire  for  iron  nails,  had 
hacked  the  boats  to  pieces.  When  thereupon 
the  boat  with  sailors  approached  the  village,  the 
natives,  expecting  a  punitive  expedition,  at- 
tacked the  men  with  stones.  The  Hollanders 
fired  their  muskets,  the  power  of  which  seemed 
unknown  to  these  people,  for  they  gazed  at  the 
murderous  arms  with  great  curiosity  until  a 
number  of  them  had  been  killed,  when  they  ran 
away  and  hid  themselves.     After  the  fashion  of 

112 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

that  day  the  Dutch  crew  then  burned  down  a 
few  hundred  native  huts.  Such  was  the  end  of 
the  first  visit  of  Hollanders  to  Madagascar. 
On  the  thirteenth  of  February  the  ships  left  for 
the  Indies,  but  before  they  got  so  far  the  long- 
expected  internal  disorder  had  broken  loose. 

I  have  mentioned  that  the  captain  of  the  Hol- 
landia  had  died  on  the  west  coast  of  Madagas- 
car. The  owners  of  the  ships,  not  wishing  to 
leave  anything  to  luck,  had  provided  each  ship 
with  sealed  instruction,  telling  the  officers  who 
should  succeed  whom  in  case  of  just  such  an  ac- 
cident. These  letters  were  to  be  opened  in  the 
full  council  of  captains.  Instead  of  doing  this, 
the  civil  commissioner  on  the  Hollandia  had 
opened  his  letter  at  once  and  had  read  therein 
that  the  office  of  captain  should  be  bestowed  up- 
on the  first  mate,  De  Keyser  by  name,  and  a  per- 
sonal friend  of  the  commissioner.  It  is  difficult 
at, this  late  date  to  discover  what  caused  all  the 
trouble  which  followed.  De  Keyser  was  a  good 
man,  the  most  popular  officer  of  the  fleet,  while 
Houtman,  the  civilian  commander  of  the  expedi- 
tion, was  very  much  disliked  by  the  officers  of 

113 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

all  the  ships.  There  is  nothing  very  peculiar  in 
this.  Civilians  are  never  wanted  on  board  a 
fleet,  least  of  all  when  they  have  been  sent  out 
to  control  the  actions  of  the  regular  seafaring 
people.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  to  find 
the  officers  taking  the  side  of  De  Keyser  and 
turning  against  the  civilians.  Houtman  in  his 
high  official  altitude  and  in  a  very  tactless  way, 
declared  that  he  would  not  recognize  De  Key- 
ser. De  Keyser,  to  avoid  friction,  then  declared 
that  he  would  voluntarily  resign,  but  the  other 
officers  declared  that  they  would  not  hear  of 
such  a  thing.  Thereupon  Houtman  insisted 
that  he,  as  civilian  commander,  had  a  right  to 
demand  the  strictest  obedience  to  the  orders  of 
the  owners.  The  officers  told  Houtman  what 
they  would  be  before  they  obeyed  a  mere  civil- 
ian. Houtman  stood  his  ground.  The  council 
of  the  captains  broke  up  in  a  free-for-all  fight, 
and  the  most  violent  backers  of  De  Keyser  de- 
clared that  they  would  shoot  Houtman  rather 
than  give  in.  Thus  far  the  quarrel  had  been 
about  the  theoretical  principle  whether  the  ac- 
tual sailors  or  the  civilian  commissioners  should 

114 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

be  the  masters  of  the  fleet.  But  when  the  man 
who  had  started  the  whole  trouble  by  opening 
the  sealed  letter  against  orders  proposed  to  de- 
sert the  fleet  with  the  Hollandia  he  committed 
a  breach  of  etiquette  which  at  once  made  him 
lose  the  support  of  the  other  regular  officers. 
Discipline  was  discipline.  The  mutineer  was 
brought  before  a  court-martial  and  was  ordered 
to  be  put  in  irons  until  the  end  of  the  voyage. 
He  actually  made  the  remainder  of  the  trip  as  a 
prisoner.  The  suit  against  him  was  not  dropped 
until  after  the  return  to  Holland.  It  was  a 
storm  in  a  tea-kettle,  or,  rather,  it  was  a  quarrel 
between  a  few  dozen  people,  most  of  them  ill, 
who  were  cooped  up  in  four  small  and  ill-smell- 
ing vessels  and  who  had  got  terribly  on  one  an- 
other's nerves.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  these 
official  disagreements  greatly  entertained  the 
rough  elements  in  the  forecastle,  who  witnessed 
this  commotion  with  hidden  glee  and  decided 
that  they  would  have  some  similar  fun  of  their 
own  as  soon  as  possible. 

Meanwhile  the  wind  had  been  favorable,  and 
on  the  fifth  of  June,  after  a  long,  but  uneventful 

115 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

voyage,  an  island  was  seen.  It  proved  to  be  a 
small  island  off  the  coast  of  Sumatra.  Sumatra 
itself  was  reached  two  days  later,  and  on  the 
eleventh  of  the  same  month  the  Sunda  Archi- 


pelago, between  Sumatra  and  Java,  was  reached. 
In  this  part  of  the  Indies  the  white  man  had  been 
before.  The  natives,  therefore,  knew  the  power 
of  firearms,  and  they  were  accordingly  cautious. 
One  of  them  who  was  familiar  with  the  straits 
between  the  islands  offered  to  act  as  pilot  on 
their  further  trip  to  Bantam.  For  eight  reals 
in  gold  he  promised  to  guide  them  safely  to  the 

ii6 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

north  shore  of  Java.  The  amount  was  small, 
but  the  distance  was  short.  On  the  twenty-third 
of  June  of  the  year  1596  four  Dutch  ships  ap- 
peared for  the  first  time  in  the  roads  of  Bantam, 
and  were  welcomed  by  the  Portuguese  with  all 
the  civility  which  the  sight  of  sixty-four  cannon 
demanded.  At  that  time  Bantam  was  an  im- 
portaiiFcity,  the  most  important  trading  center 
of  the  western  part  of  the  Indian  islands.  It 
was  the  capital  of  a  Mohammedan  sultan,  and 
for  many  years  it  had  been  the  residence  of  a 
large  Portuguese  colony.  Besides  Javanese  na- 
tives and  Portuguese  settlers  there  were  many 
Arab  traders  and  Chinese  merchants.  All  of 
these  hastened  forth  to  inspect  the  ships  with  the 
strange  flag  and  have  a  look  at  this  new  delega- 
tion of  white  men  who  were  blond,  not  dark  like 
the  Portuguese,  and  who  spoke  an  unknown  lan- 
guage. 

The  fleet  had  now  reached  its  destination,  and 
the  actual  work  of  the  commercial  delegates  be- 
gan. It  was  their  business  to  conclude  an  offi- 
cial treaty  with  the  native  authorities  and  to  try 
to  obtain  equal  trading  rights  with  the  Portu- 

117 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

guese.  Houtman  was  of  great  value  in  this  sort 
of  negotiation.  As  representative  of  the  mighty 
Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau,  who  for  the  benefit 
of  the  natives  was  described  as  the  most  high 
potentate  of  the  most  powerful  Dutch  common- 
wealth, he  called  upon  the  regent,  who  was  gov- 
erning the  country  during  the  minority  of  the 
actual  sultan.  He  made  his  visit  in  great  state, 
and  through  a  number  of  presents  he  gained  the 
favor  of  the  regent.  On  the  first  of  July  he  ob- 
tained the  desired  commercial  treaty.  The  Hol- 
landers were  allowed  to  trade  freely,  and  a  house 
was  put  at  their  disposal  to  serve  as  a  general  of- 
fice and  storeroom.  Two  of  the  civilian  direc- 
tors were  allowed  to  live  on  shore,  and  every- 
thing was  ready  for  business.  Thus  far  things 
had  gone  so  well  that  Houtman  decided  to  per- 
form his  task  leisurely.  The  new  pepper  har- 
vest was  soon  to  be  gathered,  and  he  thought 
it  well  to  wait  until  he  had  a  chance  to  get  fresh 
spices.  What  was  left  of  last  year's  crop  was 
offered  for  a  very  low  price,  but  as  there  was  no 
hurry,  no  supply  was  bought. 

Unfortunately,  this  time  of  waiting  was  uti- 

ii8 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

lized  by  the  Portuguese  for  a  campaign  of 
underhand  agitation  against  their  unwelcome 
rivals.  They  did  not  accuse  the  Hollanders  di- 
rectly of  any  evil  intentions,  but  did  the  regent 
know  who  those  people  were?  It  is  true  that 
they  claimed  to  be  the  representatives  of  a  cer- 
tain Prince  of  Nassau.  Was  there  such  a 
Prince?  They  might  just  as  well  be  common 
buccaneers.  It  would  be  much  safer  if  the  re- 
gent would  order  his  soldiers  to  take  all  the 
Hollander  people  prisoner  and  to  surrender 
them  to  the  Portuguese,  to  be  dealt  with  accord- 
ing to  their  deserts. 

The  regent,  who  knew  nothing  about  his  new 
guests  except  that  they  were  white  and  had  come 
to  him  in  wooden  ships,  listened  with  an  atten- 
tive ear.  At  first  he  did  not  act,  but  the  Hol- 
landers soon  noticed  that  whereas  they  found  it 
difficult  to  buy  anything  at  all  in  Bantam,  Portur 
guese  vessels  left  the  harbor  every  week  with 
heavy  cargoes.  At  last  when  the  commissary 
department  of  the  Dutch  fleet  sent  on  shore  for 
provisions  they  were  refused  all  further  supplies. 
Evidently  something  was  going  to  happen. 

I20 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

To  be  well  prepared  against  all  eventualities, 
the  Dutch  captains  began  to  chart  the  harbor. 
With  the  small  guns  of  that  age  it  was  necessary 
to  know  exactly  how  near  shore  one  could  get  in 
order  to  bombard  the  enemy.  The  natives  saw 
the  manoeuvering,  and  wondered  what  it  was  all 
about.  From  that  moment  on  there  was  sus- 
picion on  both  sides,  and  at  last  the  tension 
between  them  grew  so  serious  that  the  Holland- 
ers decided  to  remove  their  goods  from  their 
storehouse  and  bring  them  on  the  ships.  But 
while  they  were  loading  their  possessions  into 
the  boats  Houtman  and  another  civilian  by  the 
name  of  Willem  Lodewycksz  were  suddenly 
taken  prisoner  and  brought  to  the  castle  of  the 
regent.  This  dignitary,  afraid  of  the  Portu- 
guese, whose  power  he  appreciated,  and  yet  un- 
willing to  act  openly  against  some  newcomers 
who  might  be  far  more  dangerous,  wanted  to 
keep  the  leader  of  the  Dutch  expedition  and  one 
of  his  officers  as  hostages  until  the  Dutch  ships 
should  have  left  the  port  without  doing  him  or 
his  people  any  harm. 

The  Hollanders,  however,  who  knew  that  the 

121 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Portuguese  were  responsible  for  this  action,  at 
once  attacked  the  Portuguese  ships.  Both  par- 
ties, however,  proved  to  be  equally  strong,  and 


having  fired  several  volleys  at  one  another,  both 
sides  gave  up  their  quarrel  and  waited  until  they 
should  be  reinforced.  Houtman  and  his  com- 
panion were  set  free  after  the  Hollanders  had 
paid  a  heavy  ransom.  All  this  took  place  in  the 
month  of  October.  Even  then  Houtman  hoped 
that  the  interrupted  trading  might  be  resumed. 
Meanwhile,  however,  the  Portuguese  had  asked 
for  reinforcements  to  be  sent  from  their  colony 


122 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

in  Malacca,  and  a  high  Portuguese  official  was 
already  on  his  way  to  Bantam  to  offer  the  regent 
ten  thousand  reals  for  the  surrender  of  the  entire 
Dutch  fleet.  Of  these  negotiations  the  Dutch 
commander  obtained  full  details  through  a 
friendly  Portuguese  merchant.  Since  every- 
body spied  upon  everybody  else,  this  merchant's 
secret  correspondence  was  soon  detected,  and  the 
culprit  was  sent  to  Malacca.  As  there  was  now 
no  longer  any  hope  for  profitable  business,  the 
Dutch  fleet  made  ready  to  depart.  Just  before 
leaving,  however,  they  managed  to  get  some 
cargo.  A  Chinaman  got  on  board  the  admiral's 
ship,  and  made  him  the  following  offer.  He 
would  load  two  vessels  with  spices  and  would 
leave  the  port.  The  Hollanders  would  attack 
his  vessels  and  would  capture  both  ship  and 
cargo.  Of  course  they  must  pay  cash  and  must 
deposit  the  money  beforehand. 

This  was  done,  and  in  this  way  Houtman  got 
several  thousand  guilders'  worth  of  nutmeg  and 
mace.  Thereupon  the  Hollanders  left  Bantam 
and  tried  their  luck  in  several  other  cities  on  the 
Javanese  coast;  but  everywhere  the  people  had 

123 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

been  warned  by  the  Portuguese  against  ungodly 
pirates  who  were  soon  to  come  with  four  big 
ships,  and  everywhere  the  ships  were  refused 
water  and  were  threatened  with  open  hostilities 
if  they  should  attempt  to  buy  anything  from  the 
natives. 

One  little  king,  however,  appeared  to  have 
more  friendly  feelings.  That  was  the  King  of 
Sidayu,  on  the  strait  of  Surabaya.  He  was  very 
obliging  indeed,  and  volunteered  to  pay  the  first 
call  upon  his  distinguished  visitors.  At  the  hour 
which  had  been  officially  announced  his  Maj- 
esty, with  a  large  number  of  well-armed  canoes, 
paddled  out  to  the  Dutch  ships.  The  Holland- 
ers, glad  at  last  to  find  so  cheerful  a  welcome, 
had  arranged  everything  for  a  festive  occasion. 
The  ships  had  hoisted  their  best  array  of  flags, 
and  the  trumpeters — it  was  a  time  when  signals 
on  board  were  given  with  a  trumpet — bellowed 
forth  a  welcome.  The  Amsterdam  was  the  first 
ship  to  be  reached.  The  captain  stood  ready  at 
the  gangway  to  welcome  the  dusky  sovereign, 
but  suddenly  his  ship  was  attacked  from  all  sides 
by  a  horde  of  small  brown  men.     They  swarmed 

124 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

over  the  bulwarks  and  hacked  a  dozen  Holland- 
ers to  pieces  before  the  others  could  defend  them- 
selves.    These  in  turn  gave  fight  as  best  they 


could  with  knives  and  wooden  bars,  but  many 
more  were  killed.  At  last,  however,  the  other 
ships  managed  to  come  to  the  relief  of  the  Am- 
sterdam, and  they  destroyed  the  fleet  of  war- 
canoes  with  a  few  volleys  from  their  cannon. 
It  was  a  sad  business.  Several  of  the  officers 
had  been  killed.  What  with  the  illness  of  many 
of  the  men  there  were  hardly  sailors  enough  to 
man  the   four  ships.     The  Amsterdam   looked 

125 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

like  a  butcher  shop.  It  was  cleaned  thoroughly, 
the  dead  people  were  given  Christian  burial  in 
the  open  sea,  and  the  voyage  was  continued  to 
the  island  of  Madura. 

Here  they  arrived  on  the  eighth  of  December, 
and  were  once  more  met  by  a  large  fleet  of  small 
craft.  In  one  of  these  there  was  a  native  who 
knew  a  little  Portuguese.  He  asked  to  speak  to 
the  commander,  who  at  that  moment  was  on  the 
Amsterdam.  Houtman  told  the  native  inter- 
preter to  row  to  the  Mauritius,  where  he  would 
join  him  in  a  few  minutes.  This  was  a  good 
idea,  for  the  people  on  the  Amsterdam,  who  had 
just  seen  the  massacre  of  their  comrades,  were 
very  nervous  and  in  no  condition  to  receive  an- 
other visit  of  natives,  however  friendly  they  in- 
tended to  be.  But  through  a  mistake  the  boat 
of  the  interpreter  did  not  turn  toward  the  Mau- 
ritius, but  returned  once  more  to  the  Amsterdam, 
apparently  to  ask  for  further  instructions.  Then 
one  of  these  horrible  accidents  due  entirely  to 
panic  happened.  The  sailors  of  the  Amsterdam 
opened  fire  upon  the  natives.  The  other  ships 
thought  that  this  was  the  sign  for  ?  new  general 

126 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

attack,  and  they  got  out  their  cannon.  In  a 
moment  a  score  of  well-intentioned  natives,  and 
among  them  their  king,  had  been  killed  or  were 
drowning. 

After  this  it  could  not  be  expected  that  the 
island  of  Madura  would  sell  Houtman  anything 
at  all.  There  was  only  one  chance  left  if  the 
expedition  was  to  be  a  financial  success.  This 
was  a  trip  to  the  Molucca  Islands.  But  for  this 
voyage  the  ninety-four  sailors  who  were  still 
alive — all  the  others  who  had  left  Holland  the 
year  before  were  dead — hardly  sufficed.  Fur- 
thermore, the  Amsterdam  was  beginning  to  show 
such  severe  leaks  that  the  carpenters  could  not 
repair  the  damage.  The  ship  was  therefore 
beached  and  burned.  The  crew  was  divided 
among  the  three  other  ships  and  they  set  sail  for 
the  Moluccas. 

Before  they  reached  these  islands  a  formal 
mutiny  had  broken  out  on  board  the  Mauritius. 
Suddenly,  during  the  afternoon  meal,  the  cap- 
tain of  the  ship  had  died.  He  had  fainted, 
turned  blue  and  black,  and  in  less  than  an  hour 
he   was   dead   after   suffering   dreadful    pains. 

127 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Healthy  people,  so  the  sailors  whispered,  did  not 
die  that  way,  and  they  accused  Houtman,  who 
did  not  like  this  particular  captain,  of  having 
put  poison  into  his  food.  Houtman  was  at- 
tacked by  his  own  men,  and  he  was  put  in  irons. 
A  formal  tribunal  then  was  called  together.  It 
investigated  the  charges,  but  nothing  was  found 
against  the  accused  Commissioner.  Therefore 
Houtman  was  released,  and  the  topsyturvy  ex- 
pedition once  more  continued  its  voyage. 

But  it  never  reached  the  Molucca  Islands,  for 
before  they  got  to  these  they  found  the  island  of 
Bali.  This  proved  to  be  governed  by  a  well- 
disposed  monarch.  The  influence  of  the  Port- 
uguese was  less  strong  in  this  island  than  it 
had  been  on  Java.  The  Hollanders,  too,  had 
learned  their  lesson,  and  they  refrained  from 
the  naval  swashbuckling  that  had  often  charac- 
terized their  conduct  on  Java.  On  the  contrary, 
they  gave  themselves  every  possible  trouble  to 
be  very  pleasant  to  his  Majesty  the  Sultan. 
They  made  him  fine  presents,  and  they  produced 
their  maps  of  the  fatherland  and  made  a  great 
ado  about  their  official  documents.     The  sultan 

128 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

wished  to  know  who  they  were.  They  told  him 
that  they  came  from  a  country  which  was  situated 
in  the  northern  part  of  Europe,  where  the  water 
turned  into  a  solid  mass  across  which  you  could 


drive  a  horse  every  winter.  This  country,  ac- 
cording to  their  descriptions,  covered  a  region 
occupied  by  Russia,  France,  and  Germany. 
There  was  but  little  truth  in  these  grandiloquent 
stories,  but  they  were  dealing  with  an  innocent 
native  who  must  be  duly  impressed  by  the  great 
power  and  the  enormous  riches  of  the  home  of 
ninety-odd,     bedraggled     and     much     traveled 

129 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Dutch  sailors.  The  account  which  the  sailors 
gave  of  their  country  so  deeply  impressed  the 
king  that  he  allowed  them  to  buy  all  the  spices 
they  wanted  and  to  collect  the  necessary  provi- 


sions for  the  long  return  voyage.  On  February 
26,  in  the  second  year  of  their  voyage,  the  three 
ships  got  ready  to  sail  back  to  Holland.  One  of 
the  civilian  directors  who  with  his  masterful  fib- 
bing had  brought  himself  more  particularly  to 
the  attention  of  his  Majesty  was  left  behind,  to- 
gether with  one  sailor.  They  were  to  act  as 
counselors  to  the  court,  an  office  which  they  held 
for  four  years,  when  they  returned  to  Amster- 
dam.    Of  the  two  hundred  and  eighty-four  men 

130 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

who  had  left  Holland  in  1595,  only  eighty-nine 
returned  after  an  absence  of  two  years  and  four 
months. 

That  was  the  end  of  the  first  trip.  It  had  not 
been  profitable.  The  sale  of  the  pepper  and 
nutmeg  bought  in  Bali  saved  the  expedition  from 
being  a  total  loss  to  the  investors,  but  there  were 
not  nearly  such  large  revenues  as  were  to  follow 
in  the  succeeding  years.  Furthermore,  Hout- 
man  had  not  been  able  to  establish  any  lasting 
relations  with  any  of  the  native  princes  of  India, 
Neither  could  he  report  that  the  first  Dutch  ex- 
pedition had  been  a  shining  example  of  tactful 
dealing  with,  or  kind  treatment  of  the  people  of 
the  Indies. 

But  this  was  really  a  detail.  It  was  an  un- 
fortunate incident  due  to  their  own  lack  of  ex- 
perience and  to  the  intrigues  of  the  rival  Port- 
uguese merchants. 

From  a  commercial  point  of  view  this  expedi- 
tion was  a  failure.     Yet  it  brought  home  a  large 
volume  of  negative  information  which  was  of 
the    utmost    importance.     It    showed    that    the  / 
direct   road   to    India   was   not   an    impossible 

131 


r\^ 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

achievement  to  anybody  possessed  of  energy  and 
courage.  It  showed  that  the  power  of  the  Port- 
uguese in  India  was  not  as  strong  as  had  been 
expected.  It  showed  that  the  dream  of  an  in- 
dependent colonial  empire  for  the  new  Dutch 
Republic  in  the  Indian  islands  was  not  an  idle 
one.  In  short,  it  proved  that  all  the  fears  and 
misgivings  about  Holland's  share  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  riches  of  Asia  had  been  unnecessary. 
The  thing  could  be  done. 


132 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA- 
SUCCESS 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA- 
SUCCESS 

THERE  was  now  a  great  boom  in  the 
Indian  trade.  Whosoever  could  beg, 
borrow,  or  steal  a  few  thousand  guild- 
ers; whoever  possessed  an  old  scow  which  could 
perhaps  be  made  to  float,  whoever  was  related 
to  a  man  who  had  a  cousin  who  had  some  in- 
fluence on  the  exchange,  suddenly  became  an 
Indian  trader,  equipped  a  ship,  hired  sailors,  had 
mysterious  conferences  with  nautical  gentlemen 
who  talked  about  their  great  experience  in  for- 
eign waters,  and  then  waited  for  the  early  days 
of  spring  to  bid  God-speed  to  his  little  expedi- 
tion. Every  city  must  have  its  own  Indian  fleet. 
Companies  were  formed,  stockholders  quarreled 
about  the  apportionment  of  the  necessary  capi- 
tal, and  at  once  they  split  up  into  other  smaller 
companies.     There  was  an  "Old"  Indian  Trad- 

135 


fy 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

ing  Company.  The  next  day  there  was  a  rival 
called  the  "New"  Indian  Trading  Company. 
There  was  an  Indian  company  which  was 
backed  by  the  province  of  Zeeland.  There  was 
a  private  enterprise  of  the  city  of  Rotterdam. 
To  be  honest,  there  were  too  many  companies 
for  the  small  size  of  the  country.  Before  an- 
other dozen  years  had  passed  they  were  all 
amalgamated  into  one  strong  commercial  body, 
the  great  Dutch  East  India  Company,  but  dur- 
ing the  first  years  hundreds  of  ships  stampeded 
to  the  promised  land  of  Java  and  Bali  and  the 
Moluccas,  and  for  one  fleet  of  small  vessels 
which  came  home  with  a  profit  there  were  a 
dozen  which  either  were  shipwrecked  on  the 
way  or  which  had  ruined  their  shareholders  be- 
fore they  had  passed  the  equator. 

Amsterdam,  as  always,  was  the  leader  in  this 
activity.  It  was  not  only  a  question  of  capital. 
There  had  to  be  men  of  vision,  merchants  who 
were  willing  to  do  things  on  a  large  scale,  be- 
fore such  a  venture  could  return  any  profit. 
And  while  the  ships  of  the  Zeeland  Company 
were  hurried  to  sea,  and  left  long  before  the 

136 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

others,  and  incidentally  came  back  a  few  years 
later,  Amsterdam  quietly  collected  eight  hundred 
thousand  guilders  and  advertised  for  competent 
officers  and  willing  men  for  a  large  expedition. 
This  time,  it  was  decided,  everything  was  to  be 
done  with  scientific  precision,  and  nothing  must 
be  left  to  chance.  The  commander  in  chief  of 
the  560  men  who  were  to  take  part  in  the  expe- 
dition was  Jacob  van  Neck,  a  man  of  good  birth, 
excellent  training,  and  well-known  in  the  poli- 
tics of  his  own  city.  His  most  important  adviser 
was  Jacob  van  Heemskerk,  fresh  from  his  ad- 
ventures in  the  Arctic  Sea  and  ready  for  new 
ones  in  the  Indian  Ocean.  Several  of  the  officers 
who  had  been  to  Bantam  with  Houtman  were 
engaged  for  this  second  voyage.  Among  them 
our  friend  Van  der  Does,  out  of  whose  diary  we 
copied  the  adventures  of  the  first  voyage  to  the 
Indies.  Even  the  native  element  was  not  lack- 
ing. You  will  remember  that  the  Hollanders 
had  taken  several  hostages  in  Madagascar  when 
they  visited  the  east  coast  of  that  island  in  the 
year  1595.  Two  of  these  had  been  tamed  and 
had  been  taken  to  Holland.     After  a  year  in 

137 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Amsterdam  they  were  quite  willing  to  exchange 
the  uncomfortable  gloominess  of  the  Dutch  cli- 
mate for  a  return  to  their  sunny  native  shores. 
Also  there  was  a  Mohammedan  boy  by  the 
name  of  Abdul,  whom  curiosity  had  driven 
from  Bali  to  Holland  on  board  the  ship  of 
Houtman. 

The  fleet  of  eight  vessels  left  the  roads  of  Texel 
on  the  first  of  May  of  the  year  1598,  and  with  a 


favorable  wind  reached  the  Cape  Verde  Islands 
three  weeks  later.  There,  a  general  council  of 
the  different  captains  was  asked  to  decide  upon 

138 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

the  further  course.  For  with  each  expedition 
the  knowledge  of  what  ought  to  be  done  and 
what  ought  to  be  omitted  increased,  and  the 
experiences  of  Houtman  on  the  coast  of  Africa 
where  his  entire  crew  had  been  disabled  through 
scurvy,  must  not  be  repeated.  The  fleet  must 
either  follow  the  coast  of  Africa  to  get  fresh  food 
and  water  whenever  necessary,  or  the  ships  must 
risk  a  more  western  course,  which  would  take 
them  a  far  distance  away  from  land,  but  would 
bring  them  into  currents  which  would  carry 
them  to  the  Indies  in  a  shorter  while.  They  de- 
cided to  take  the  western  course.  It  was  a  very 
tedious  voyage  except  for  the  flying-fishes  which 
sometimes  accompanied  the  ship.  Luck  was 
with  the  expedition,  and  on  the  ninth  of  July  the 
ships  passed  the  equator.  The  little  island  of 
Trinidad,  off  the  coast  of  Brazil,  was  soon 
reached,  and  an  inquisitive  trip  in  an  open  boat 
to  explore  this  huge  rock  almost  ended  in  disas- 
ter. But  such  small  affairs  as  a  night  spent  in 
an  open  boat  in  a  stormy  ocean  were  all  in  the 
day's  work  and  gave  the  sailors  something  to 
talk  about. 

139 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Within  a  remarkably  short  time  the  lonely  is- 
land of  Tristan  d'Acunha  was  passed,  and  from 
there  the  current  and  the  western  winds  carried 
the  ships  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  But  near 
this  stormy  promontory  a  small  hurricane  sud- 
denly fell  upon  the  fleet,  and  after  a  night  of 
very  heavy  squalls  one  of  the  eight  ships  had 
disappeared.  It  was  never  seen  again.  A  few 
days  later,  this  time  through  carelessness  in  ob- 
serving signals,  four  other  ships  were  separated 
from  their  admiral.  Several  days  were  spent 
in  coursing  about  in  the  attempt  to  find  them. 
The  sea,  however,  is  very  wide,  and  ships  very 
small,  and  Van  Neck  with  two  big  and  one  small 
vessel  at  last  decided  to  continue  the  voyage 
alone.  He  was  in  a  hurry.  There  were  many 
rivals  to  his  great  undertaking,  and  when  he  ac- 
tually met  a  Dutch  ship  sent  out  by  the  province 
of  Zeeland,  he  insisted  that  there  must  be  no  de- 
lay of  any  sort.  The  Zeeland  ship,  however, 
was  not  a  dangerous  competitor.  Nine  members 
of  its  crew  of  seventy-five  had  died.  Among  the 
others  there  was  so  much  scurvy  that  only  seven 
men  were  able  to  handle  the  helm.     Only  two 

140 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

could  climb  aloft.  The  Amsterdam  ships  ought 
to  have  helped  their  fellow-countrymen,  but  in 
the  Indian  spice  trade  it  was  a  question  of  "first 


come,  first  served."  Therefore  they  piously 
commended  their  Zeeland  brethren  to  the  care 
of  the  Good  Lord  and  hastened  on. 

A  short  stay  in  Madagascar  was  necessary  be- 
cause the  water  in  the  tanks  was  of  such  abom- 
inable taste  and  smelled  so  badly  that  it  must  be 
replenished.  The  ships  sailed  to  the  east  coast 
of  the  island,  stopped  at  Santa  Maria,  well 
known  from  the  visit  of  Houtman's  ships  three 
years  before,  and  then  made  a  short  trip  in  search 

141 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

of  fresh  fruit  to  the  bay  of  Antongil.  On  the 
island  of  Santa  Maria  they  had  found  a  happy 
population,  well  governed  by  an  old  king  and 
spending  their  days  in  hunting  wild  animals  on 
land  or  catching  whales  at  sea.  But  in  the  Bay 
of  Antongil  things  had  greatly  changed  since 
Houtman  had  left  a  year  before.  There  had 
been  a  war  with  some  of  the  tribes  from  the  in- 
terior of  the  island.  The  villages  along  the 
coast  had  been  burned,  and  all  the  cattle  had 
been  killed.  Men  and  women  were  dying  of 
starvation.  Right  in  the  midst  of  the  lovely 
tropical  scenery  there  lay  the  decaying  corpses 
of  the  natives,  a  prey  to  vultures  and  jackals. 
The  expedition  of  Van  Neck,  however,  had  been 
sent  out  to  buy  spices  in  India  and  not  to  reform 
the  heathen  inhabitants  of  African  islands.  The 
water-tanks  were  hastily  filled,  and  on  the  six- 
teenth of  September  the  island  was  left  to  its 
own  fate. 

For  two  months  the  ships  sailed  eastward. 
There  were  a  few  sick  men  on  board,  but  no- 
body died,  which  was  considered  a  magnificent 
record  in  those  days  for  so  long  a  voyage.     On 

142 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

November  19  the  high  mountains  of  the  coast 
of  Sumatra  appeared  upon  the  horizon.  From 
there  Van  Neck  steered  southward,  and  near 
the  Sunda  Islands  he  at  last  reached  the  danger- 


ous domains  of  the  Portuguese.  The  cannon 
were  inspected,  the  mechanism  of  the  guns  was 
well  oiled,  and  everything  was  made  ready  for 
a  possible  fight.  Before  the  coast  of  Java  was 
reached  one  of  the  islands  of  the  Sunda  Archi- 
pelago was  visited.  Could  the  natives  tell  them 
anything  about  the  Portuguese  and  their  inten- 

143 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

tions?  The  natives  could  not  do  this,  but  in 
return  asked  the  men  whether  they  perhaps  knew 
anything  about  a  foreign  expedition  which  had 
been  in  those  parts  a  few  years  before?  That 
expedition,  it  appeared,  had  left  a  very  bad  repu- 
tation behind  on  account  of  its  cruelty  and  in- 
solence. 

Van  Neck  decided  not  to  remain  in  this  region, 
where  his  predecessor  had  made  himself  too 
thoroughly  unpopular,  and  sailed  direct  for  Ban- 
tam. He  would  take  his  risks.  On  November 
26,  while  the  sun  was  setting,  the  three  ships 
dropped  anchor  in  that  harbor.  They  spent  an 
uncomfortable  night,  for  nobody  knew  what  sort 
of  reception  would  await  them  on  the  next  day. 
Houtman  had  been  in  great  difficulty  with  both 
the  sultan  and  the  Portuguese.  Very  likely  the 
ships,  flying  the  Dutch  flag,  would  be  attacked  in 
the  morning.  But  when  morning  came,  the  ubiq- 
uitous Chinaman,  who  in  the  far  Indies  serves 
foreign  potentates  as  money-changer,  merchant, 
diplomatic  agent,  and  handy-man  in  general, 
came  rowing  out  to  Van  Neck's  ship.  He  told 
the  admiral  that  the  sultan  sent  the  Hollanders 

144 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

his  very  kind  regards  and  begged  them  to  accept 
a  small  gift  of  fresh  fruit.  The  sultan  was  glad 
to  see  the  Hollanders.  If  they  would  only  send 
a  messenger  on  shore  the  sultan  would  receive 
him  at  once.  Meanwhile  as  a  sign  of  good  faith 
the  Chinese  intermediary  was  willing  to  stay  on 
board  the  ship  of  the  Hollanders.  Nobody  in 
the  fleet,  least  of  all  the  officers  and  sailors  who 
remembered  what  had  happened  two  years  be- 
fore, had  expected  such  a  reception.  They  were 
soon  told  the  reason  of  this  change  in  attitude. 
After  Houtman  and  his  ships  left  in  the  summer 
of  1596  the  Portuguese  Government  had  sent  a 
strong  fleet  to  punish  the  Sultan  of  Bantam  for 
having  been  too  friendly  to  the  Hollanders. 
This  fleet  had  suffered  a  defeat,  but  since  that 
time  the  people  in  Bantam  had  feared  the  ar- 
rival of  another  punitive  expedition.  The  Hol- 
landers, therefore,  came  as  very  welcome  de- 
fenders of  the  rights  of  the  young  sultan.  It  was 
decided  that  their  services  should  be  used  for 
the  defense  of  the  harbor  if  the  long-expected 
Portuguese  fleet  should  make  a  new  attack.  It 
was  in  this  role  of  the  lesser  of  two  evils  that  the 

145 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Hollanders  finally  were  to  conquer  their  Indian 
empire  from  the  Portuguese.  Van  Neck  was 
the  first  Dutch  captain  to  use  the  local  political 
situation  for  his  own  benefit.  He  sent  his  repre- 
sentative on  shore,  who  was  received  with  great 
ceremony.  He  explained  how  this  fleet  had 
been  sent  to  the  Indies  by  the  mighty  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  he  promised  that  the  Bantam  gov- 
ernment would  be  allowed  to  see  all  the  official 
documents  which  the  admiral  had  brought  if 
they  would  deign  to  visit  the  ships.  This  invi- 
tation was  not  well  received.  The  Bantam 
people  had  been  familiar  with  the  ways  of  white 
men  for  almost  a  hundred  years.  They  dis- 
trusted all  cordial  invitations  to  come  on  board 
foreign  ships,  and  they  asked  that  the  Holland- 
ers send  their  papers  ashore.  "No,"  Van  Neck 
told  them  through  his  envoy,  "a  document  given 
to  me  by  the  mighty  Prince  of  Orange  is  too  im- 
portant to  be  allowed  out  of  my  immediate 
sight." 

In  the  end  the  sultan,  curious  to  see  whether 
these  letters  could  perhaps  tell  him  something 
of  further  ships  which  might  be  on  their  way, 

146 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

agreed  to  make  his  appearance  upon  the  ship  of 
the  admiral,  where  he  was  received  with  great 
courtesy. 

Then,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Indian  ruler  of 
his  day  and  of  our  own,  he  demanded  to  know 
what  his  profits  were  to  be  in  case  he  allowed 
the  Hollanders  to  trade  in  his  city.  Van  Neck 
began  negotiations  about  the  bribe  which  the  dif- 
ferent functionaries  were  to  receive.  For  a  con- 
sideration of  3200  reals  to  the  sultan  and  the  com- 
mander of  the  harbor,  the  Dutch  ships  were  at 
last  given  permission  to  approach  the  shore  and 
buy  whatever  they  wanted.  For  ten  days  long 
canoes  filled  with  pepper  and  nutmeg  sur- 
rounded the  ships.  The  pepper  was  bought  for 
three  reals  a  bag.  Everything  was  very  pleas- 
ant, but  one  day  Abdul,  the  native  who  came 
from  Bali,  got  on  shore  and  visited  the  city. 
Here  among  his  own  people  he  cut  quite  a  dash, 
and  bragging  about  the  wonders  of  the  great 
Dutch  Republic,  he  volunteered  the  informa- 
tion that  on  the  Amsterdam  market  he  had  seen 
how  a  bag  of  pepper  was  sold  for  100  reals. 
That  sum,  therefore,  was  just  ninety-seven  reals 

147 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

more  than  the  people  in  Bantam  received  for 
their  own  raw  product.  Of  course  they  did  not 
like  the  idea  of  getting  so  little,  and  at  once  they 
refused  to  sell  to  Van  Neck  at  the  old  rate.  It 
was  a  great  disappointment.  He  tried  to  do  bus- 
iness with  some  Chinamen,  but  they  were  worse 
than  the  Javanese.  They  offered  their  pepper 
to  the  Hollanders  at  a  ridiculously  low  price, 
but  after  the  bags  had  been  weighed  they  were 
found  to  be  weighted  with  stones  and  sand  and 
pieces  of  glass. 

There  was  no  end  to  all  the  small  annoyances 
which  the  Dutch  admiral  was  made  to  suffer. 
There  were  a  number  of  Portuguese  soldiers 
hanging  about  the  town.  They  had  been  made 
prisoners  during  the  last  fatal  expedition  against 
Bantam,  and  they  suffered  a  good  many  hard- 
ships. One  day  they  were  allowed  to  pay  a  visit 
to  the  Dutch  ships,  and  the  tales  of  their  mis- 
ery were  so  harrowing  that  the  admiral  had 
given  them  some  money  to  be  used  for  the  pur- 
pose of  buying  food  and  clothes.  No  sooner, 
however,  were  the  prisoners  back  on  dry  land 
than  they  started  the  rumor  that  the  Hollanders 

148 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

were  dangerous  pirates  and  ought  not  to  be 
trusted.  Van  Neck  vowed  that  he  would  hang 
his  ungrateful  visitors  if  ever  they  came  to  him 
again  with  their  tales  of  woe.  Meanwhile,  in 
order  to  stop  further  talk,  he  promised  to  raise 
the  price  of  pepper  two  reals.  For  five  reals  a 
bag  his  ships  were  now  filled  with  a  cargo  of  the 
costly  spice. 

In  a  peaceful  way  the  month  of  December 
went  by.  It  was  the  last  day  of  the  year  1598 
when  quite  unexpectedly  the  lost  ships  that  had 
been  driven  away  from  their  admiral  near  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  appeared  at  Bantam. 
They  had  passed  through  many  exciting  ad- 
ventures. After  they  had  lost  sight  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, they  had  first  spent  several  days 
trying  to  discover  his  whereabouts.  Then  they 
had  continued  their  way  to  get  fresh  water  in 
Madagascar.  They  had  reached  the  coast  of 
the  island  safely,  but  just  before  they  could  land 
a  sudden  storm  had  driven  them  eastward.  On 
the  seventeenth  of  September  they  had  again 
seen  land,  and  they  had  dropped  their  anchors 
to  discover  to  what  part  of  the  world  they  had 

149 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

been  blown  by  the  wind.  The  map  did  not  show 
that  there  was  any  land  in  this  region.  There- 
fore on  the  eighteenth  of  September  of  the  year 
1598  they  had  visited  the  island  which  lay  be- 
fore them,  and  they  found  that  they  had  reached 
paradise.  All  the  sailors  had  been  taken  ashore, 
it  being  Sunday,  and  the  ships'  pastor  had 
preached  a  wonderful  sermon.  So  eloquent 
were  his  words  that  one  of  the  Madagascar  boys 
who  was  on  the  fleet  had  accepted  Christian 
baptism  then  and  there.  After  that  for  a  full 
month  officers  and  men  had  taken  a  holiday. 
Whatever  they  wished  for  the  island  provided 
in  abundance.  There  was  fresh  water.  There 
were  hundreds  of  tame  pigeons.  There  were 
birds  which  resembled  an  ostrich,  although  they 
were  smaller  and  tasted  better  when  cooked. 
There  were  gigantic  bats  and  turtles  so  large  that 
several  men  could  take  a  ride  on  their  back. 
Fish  abounded  in  the  rivers  and  the  sea  around 
the  island,  and  it  was  thickly  covered  with  all 
sorts  of  palm-trees.  Indeed,  it  looked  so  fertile 
that  it  was  decided  to  use  it  as  a  granary  for 
future  expeditions.     Grain   had  been   planted, 

150 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

and  also  beans  and  peas  for  the  use  of  ships  which 
might  come  during  the  next  years.  Then  the 
island  had  been  officially  annexed  for  the  benefit 
of  the  republic.  It  had  been  called  Mauritius 
after  Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau,  the  Stadholder 
of  Holland.  Finally  after  a  rooster  and  seven 
chickens  had  been  given  the  freedom  of  this  do- 
main, to  assure  future  travelers  of  fresh  eggs,  the 
four  ships  had  hoisted  their  sails  and  had  come 
to  Bantam  to  join  their  admiral. 

Van  Neck  now  commanded  several  ships, 
which  were  loaded.  But  the  others  must  await 
the  arrival  of  a  new  supply  of  pepper,  which  was 
being  brought  to  Bantam  from  the  Moluccas  by 
some  enterprising  Chinamen.  This  would  take 
time,  and  Van  Neck  was  still  in  a  great  hurry. 
He  refused  to  consider  the  tempting  offers  of  the 
Sultan  of  Bantam,  who  still  wanted  his  help 
against  his  Portuguese  enemies.  Instead,  he  en- 
tered into  negotiations  with  a  Hindu  merchant 
who  offered  to  bring  the  other  ships  directly  to 
the  Moluccas,  where  they  would  be  in  the  heart 
of  the  spice-growing  islands.  The  Hindu  was 
engaged,  and  navigated  the  ships  safely  to  their 

152 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

destination.  Here  through  their  good  behavior 
the  Hollanders  made  such  an  excellent  impres- 
sion upon  the  native  ruler  that  they  were  al- 
lowed to  establish  two  settlements  on  shore  and 
leave  a  small  garrison  until  they  should  return 
to  buy  more  mace  and  nutmeg  at  incredibly 
reasonable  terms.  As  for  Van  Neck,  having 
sa.'Uted  his  faithful  companions  with  a  salvo  of 
his  big  guns,  which  started  a  panic  in  the  good 
town  of  Bantam,  where  the  people  still  remem- 
bered the  departure  of  Houtman,  he  sailed  for 
the  coast  of  Africa. 

He  had  every  reason  to  be  contented  with  his 
success.  In  a  final  audience  with  the  governor 
of  the  city  of  Bantam  he  had  promised  this  dig- 
nitary that  the  Hollanders  would  return  the  next 
year,  "because  that  was  the  will  of  their  mighty 
ruler."  The  governor,  from  his  side,  who  upon 
this  occasion  had  to  deal  with  a  much  better  class 
of  men  than  Houtman  and  his  crew  of  mutinous 
sailors,  had  decided  that  the  Hollanders  were 
preferable  to  the  Portuguese,  and  he  assured 
Van  Neck  of  a  cordial  reception. 

The  return  voyage  was  not  as  prosperous  as 

153 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

the  outward  trip  had  been.  Dysentery  attacked 
the  fleet,  and  many  of  the  best  officers  and  men 
had  to  be  sewn  into  their  hammocks  to  be 
dropped  into  the  ocean,  where  they  found  an 
honorable  burial.  St.  Helena,  with  its  fresh  wa- 
ter and  its  many  wild  animals,  was  reached  just 
when  the  number  of  healthy  men  had  fallen  to 
thirty.  A  week  of  rest  and  decent  food  was 
enough  to  cure  all  the  men,  and  then  they  sailed 
for  home.  But  so  great  was  the  hurry  of  this 
rich  squadron  to  reach  the  markets  of  Amster- 
dam that  Van  Neck's  ship  was  almost  destroyed 
when  it  hoisted  too  many  sails  and  when  the  wind 
broke  two  of  the  masts.  It  was  not  easy  to  re- 
pair this  damage  in  the  open  sea.  After  several 
days  some  sort  of  jury  rig  was  equipped.  The 
big  ship,  with  its  short  stubby  mast,  then  looked 
so  queer  that  several  Dutch  vessels  which  saw  it 
appear  upon  the  horizon  off  the  Gulf  of  Biscay 
beat  a  hasty  retreat.  They  feared  that  they  had 
to  do  with  a  new  sort  of  pirate,  sailing  the  seas 
in  the  most  recent  piratical  invention. 

On  the  nineteenth  of  July,  after  an  absence  of 
only  one  year  and  two  months,  the  first  part  of 

154 


THE  SECOND  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA 

Van  Neck's  fleet  returned  safely  to  Holland. 
The  cargo  was  unloaded,  and  was  sold  on  the 
Amsterdam  exchange.  After  the  full  cost  of  the 
expedition  had  been  paid,  each  of  the  sharehold- 
ers received  a  profit  of  just  one  hundred  per  cent. 
Van  Neck,  who  had  established  the  first  Dutch 
settlement  in  the  Indies,  was  given  a  public  re- 
ception by  his  good  city  and  was  marched  in 
state  to  the  town  hall. 


l\ 


155 


VAN  NOORT  CIRCUMNAVIGATES 
THE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  VI 

VAN  NOORT  CIRCUMNAVIGATES 
THE  WORLD 

OLIVER  VAN  NOORT  was  the  first  / 
Hollander  to  sail  around  the  world. 
Incidentally,  he  was  the  fourth  navi- 
gator to  succeed  in  this  dangerous  enterprise 
since  in  the  year  1520  the  little  ships  of  Ma- 
gellan had  accomplished  the  feat  of  circum- 
navigating the  globe.  Of  the  hero  of  this 
memorable  Dutch  voyage  we  know  almost  noth- 
ing. He  was  a  modest  man,  and  except  for  a 
few  lines  of  personal  introduction  which  appear 
in  the  printed  story  of  his  voyage,  which  was 
published  in  Rotterdam,  his  home  town,  in  the 
year  1620,  in  which  he  tells  us  that  he  had  made 
many  trips  to  different  parts  of  the  world,  his 
life  to  us  is  a  complete  mystery. 

He  was  not,  like  Jacob  van  Heemskerk  and 

159 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Van  Neck,  a  man  of  education;  neither  was  he 
of  very  low  origin.  He  had  picked  up  a  good 
deal  of  learning  at  the  common  schools.  Very 
likely  he  had  been  the  mate  or  perhaps  the  cap- 
tain of  some  small  schooner,  had  made  a  little 


Olivier  van  Noort. 


money,  and  then  had  retired  from  the  sea. 
Spending  one's  days  on  board  a  ship  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  no  pleasure. 
The  ships  were  small.  The  cabins  were  uncom- 
fortable, and  so  low  that  nowhere  one  could  stand 
up  straight.     Cooking  had  to  be  done  on  a  very 

1 60 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

primitive  stove,  which  could  not  always  be  used 
when  the  weather  was  bad.  The  middle  part 
of  the  deck  was  apt  to  be  flooded  most  of  the 
time,  and  the  flat-bottomed  ships  rolled  and 
pitched  horribly.  Therefore,  as  soon  as  a  man 
had  made  a  little  competency  as  the  master  of  a 
small  craft  he  was  apt  to  look  for  some  quiet 
occupation  on  shore.  He  had  not  learned  a  reg- 
ular trade  which  he  could  use  on  shore.  Very 
often,  therefore,  he  opened  a  small  hotel  or  an 
inn  or  just  an  ale-house  where  he  could  tell  yarns 
about  whales  and  wild  men  and  queer  countries 
which  he  had  seen  in  the  course  of  his  peregrina- 
tions. And  when  the  evening  came  and  the  tired 
citizen  wanted  to  smoke  a  comfortable  pipe  and 
discuss  the  politics  of  the  pope,  the  emperor, 
kings,  dukes,  bishops  and  their  Mightinesses,  his 
own  aldermen,  he  liked  to  do  so  under  the  guid- 
ance of  a  man  who  knew  what  was  what  in  the 
world  and  who  could  compare  the  stadholder's 
victories  over  the  Spaniards  with  those  which 
King  Wunga  Wunga  of  Mozambique  had 
gained  over  his  Hottentot  neighbors,  and  who 
knew  that  the  wine  of  Oporto  sold  in  Havana  for 

i6i 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

less  than  the  vinegar  from  Dantsic  and  the  salted 
fish  from  Archangel         V<Pfi^J-^l& 

Therefore  we  are  not  surprised  when  in  the 
year  1595  we  find  Oliver  van  Noort  described 
as  the  owner  of  the  "Double  White  Keys,"  an 
ale-house  in  the  town  of  Rotterdam.  He  might 
have  finished  his  days  there  in  peace  and  pros- 
perity, but  when  Houtman  returned  from  his 
first  voyage  and  the  craze  for  the  riches  of  the 
Indies,  or  at  least  a  share  thereof,  struck  the  town 
of  Rotterdam,  Van  Noort,  together  with  every- 
body else  who  could  borrow  a  few  pennies,  be- 
gan to  think  of  new  ways  of  reaching  the  mar- 
velous island  of  Java,  made  of  gold  and  jewels 
and  the  even  more  valuable  pepper  and  nutmeg. 
Van  Noort  himself  possessed  some  money  and 
the  rest  he  obtained  from  several  of  his  best 
customers.  With  this  small  sum  he  founded 
a  trading  company  of  his  own.  He  petitioned 
the  estates  general  of  the  republic  and  the  es- 
tates of  his  own  province  of  Holland  to  assist  him 
in  an  expedition  toward  the  "Kingdom  of  Chili, 
the  west  coast  of  America,  and  if  need  be,  the 
islands  of  the  Moluccas."     To  make  this  impor- 

162 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

tant  enterprise  successful,  the  estates  general 
were  asked  to  give  Van  Noort  and  his  trading 
company  freedom  of  export  and  import  for  at 
least  six  voyages,  and  to  present  it  with  ten  can- 
non and  twelve  thousand  pounds  of  gunpowder. 
He  asked  for  much  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  at 
least  part  of  what  he  desired. 

In  the  winter  of  1597  his  request  was  granted. 
He  received  four  guns,  six  thousand  pounds  of 
bullets,  twelve  thousand  pounds  of  gunpowder, 
and  a  special  grant  which  relieved  him  of  the 
customary  export  tax  for  two  voyages.  This 
demand  for  cannon,  gunpowder,  and  bullets 
gives  us  the  impression  that  the  expedition  ex- 
pected to  meet  with  serious  trouble.  That  was 
quite  true.  The  southern  part  of  America  was 
the  private  property  of  the  Spaniards  and  the 
Portuguese.  Anybody  who  ventured  into  those 
regions  flying  the  Dutch  colors  did  so  at  his  own 
peril.  Among  his  fellow-citizens  Van  Noort 
had  the  reputation  of  great  courage.  Nobody 
knew  any  precise  details  of  his  early  life,  but  it 
was  whispered,  although  never  proved,  that 
many  years  ago,  long  before  the  days  of  Hout- 

163 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

man,  he  had  tried  to  reach  the  Indies  all  alone, 
but  that  he  had  preferred  the  more  lucrative 
profession  of  pirate  to  the  dangerous  calling  of 
the  pioneer.  Since,  however,  all  his  privateer- 
ing had  been  done  at  the  expense  of  the  Span- 
iards, nobody  minded  these  few  alleged  ir- 
regularities of  his  youthful  days.  And  the 
merchants  who  drank  their  pot  of  ale  at  his  inn 
willingly  provided  him  with  the  money  which 
he  needed,  bade  him  go  ahead,  and  helped  him 
when  during  the  winter  of  the  year  1597  he  was 
getting  his  two  ships  ready  for  the  voyage. 

Now,  it  happened  that  at  that  time  a  num- 
ber of  merchants  in  Amsterdam  were  working 
for  the  same  purpose.  They,  too,  wanted  to 
sail  to  the  Moluccas  by  way  of  the  Strait  of 
Magellan.  For  the  sake  of  greater  safety  the 
two  companies  decided  to  travel  together.  In 
June  of  the  year  1597  their  fleet,  composed  of 
four  ships,  was  ready  for  the  voyage.  Van 
Noort  was  to  command  the  biggest  vessel,  the 
Mauritius,  while  the  commander  of  the  Amster- 
dam company  was  to  be  vice-admiral  of  the  fleet 
on  board  the  Henrick  Frederick.     The  name  of 

164 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

the  vice-admiral  was  Jacob  Claesz.  We  know 
nothing  about  his  early  career,  but  we  know  all 
the  details  of  his  tragic  end.  There  were  two 
other  small  ships.  There  was  a  yacht  called 
the  Eendracht,  and  there  was  a  merchantman 
called  the  Hope.  The  tonnage  of  the  ships  is 
not  mentioned,  but  since  there  were  only  two 
hundred  and  forty-eight  men  on  the  four  ships, 
they  must  have  been  small  even  for  that 
time. 

In  a  general  way  our  meager  information 
about  the  invested  capital,  the  strange  stories  of 
the  early  lives  of  the  commanders,  and  the  very 
rough  character  of  the  crew  show  that  we  have 
to  do  with  one  of  the  many  mushroom  compa- 
nies, an  enterprise  which  was  not  based  upon  very 
sound  principles,  but  was  of  a  purely  speculative 
nature.  During  the  earliest  days  of  Indian 
trading,  however,  all  good  merchants  were  in 
such  a  hurry  to  make  money  to  get  to  Java  long 
before  anybody  else  and  to  reach  home  ahead  of 
all  competitors  that  there  was  no  time  for  the 
promoting  of  absolutely  sound  companies. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  men  who  commanded 

i6s 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

those  first  expeditions  had  all  been  schooled  in 
the  noble  art  of  self-reliance  during  the  first 
twenty  terrible  years  of  the  war  against  Spain. 
They  were  brave,  they  were  resourceful,  they 
succeeded  where  others,  more  careful,  would 
have  failed. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  of  June  of  the  year  1597 
Van  Noort  left  Rotterdam  to  await  his  compan- 
ions from  Amsterdam  in  the  Downs,.  England. 
He  waited  for  several  weeks,  but  the  ships  did 
not  appear,  so  he  went  back  to  Holland  to  find 
out  what  might  have  become  of  them.  He 
found  them  lying  at  anchor  in  one  of  the  Zee- 
land  streams.  Evidently  there  had  been  a  mis- 
understanding as  to  the  exact  meeting-place  of 
the  two  squadrons.  Together  they  then  began 
the  voyage  for  a  second  time.  They  had  lost  a 
month  and  a  half  in  waiting  for  each  other,  but 
at  that  date  forty-five  days  more  or  less  did  not 
matter.  The  trip  was  to  take  a  couple  of  years, 
anyway. 

First  of  all  Van  Noort  went  to  Plymouth, 
where  he  had  arranged  to  meet  a  British  sailor, 
commonly  referred  to  as  "Captain  Melis,"  a 

166 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

man  who  had  been  around  the  world  with  Cap- 
tain Cavendish  in  1588,  and  who  was  familiar 
with  the  stormy  regions  around  the  southern  part 
of  the  American  continent.  In  exchange  for  one 
Englishman,  Van  Noort  lost  several  good  Dutch- 
men. Six  of  his  sailors  deserted,  and  could  not 
be  found  again. 

The  first  part  of  the  trip  was  along  the  coast 
of  Africa,  a  road  which  we  know  from  other  ex- 
peditions. Then  came  a  story  with  which  we 
are  only  too  familiar  from  previous  accounts, 
for  the  much  dreaded  scurvy  appeared  among 
the  men.  When  the  fleet  passed  the  small  island 
of  Principe  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea,  it  was  decided 
to  land  there  and  try  to  obtain  fresh  water  and 
fresh  food.  Unfortunately,  this  island  was 
within  the  established  domain  of  the  Portuguese, 
and  the  Hollanders  must  be  careful.  Early  in 
the  morning  of  the  day  on  which  they  intended 
to  look  for  water  they  sent  three  boats  ashore 
flying  a  white  flag  as  a  sign  of  their  peaceful  in- 
tentions. The  inhabitants  of  the  island  came 
near  the  boats,  also  carrying  a  white  flag.  They 
informed   the   Hollanders   that   if   they  would 

168 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

kindly  visit  the  near-by  villages  the  natives 
v^ould  sell  them  everything  they  v^anted,  pro- 
vided the  Hollanders  paid  cash.  The  men  were 
ordered  to  stay  near  the  boats,  but  four  officers 
went  farther  inland.  They  were  asked  to  come 
first  of  all  to  the  Portuguese  castle  that  was  on 


the  island.  They  went,  but  once  inside,  they 
were  suddenly  attacked,  and  three  of  them  were 
murdered.  The  fourth  one  jumped  out  of  the 
gate  just  in  time  to  save  his  life.  He  ran  to  the 
shore.  This  was  a  great  loss  to  the  Hollanders, 
for  among  the  men  who  had  been  killed  was  a 
brother  of  Admiral  van  Noort  and  the  English 

169 


V 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

pilot  upon  whom  they  depended  to  guide  them 
through  the  difficult  Strait  of  Magellan. 

To  uphold  the  prestige  of  the  Dutch  Republic, 
Van  Noort  decided  to  make  an  example.  The 
next  day  after  he  landed  with  120  of  his  men 
and  entrenched  himself  near  the  mouth  of  a 
river,  so  that  he  might  fill  his  water-tanks  at 
leisure.  Then,  following  this  river,  he  went 
into  the  interior  of  the  country  and  burned 
down  all  the  plantations  and  houses  he  could 
find. 

Well  provided  with  fresh  water,  he  thereupon 
crossed  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  steered  for  the 
coast  of  Brazil.  On  the  ninth  of  February  he 
dropped  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
which  was  a  Portuguese  town.  He  carefully 
kept  out  of  reach  of  the  menacing  guns  of  the 
fortification.  The  reception  in  Brazil  was  little 
more  cordial  than  it  had  been  on  the  other  side 
of  the  ocean.  The  Portuguese  sent  a  boat  to  the 
Dutch  ships  to  ask  what  they  wanted.  The  an- 
swer was  that  the  Hollanders  were  peaceful  trav- 
elers in  need  of  fresh  provisions.  The  provi- 
sions were  promised  for  the  next  day,  but  Van 

170 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

Noort,  who  had  heard  similar  promises  before, 
was  on  his  guard  and  for  safety's  sake  he  kept  a 
few  Portuguese  sailors  on  his  ship  as  hostages. 

On  the  morning  of  the  next  day  he  sent  several 
of  his  men  to  the  shore  to  get  the  supplies.  They 
landed  near  a  mountain  called  the  Sugarloaf. 
Once  more  the  Portuguese  did  not  play  the  game 
fairly.  They  had  posted  a  number  of  their  sol- 
diers in  a  well-hidden  ambush  near  the  Sugar- 
loaf.  These  soldiers  suddenly  opened  fire, 
wounded  a  large  number  of  the  Dutch  seamen 
and  took  two  of  them  prisoners.  A  little  later 
a  shot  fired  from  one  of  the  cannon  of  the  castle 
killed  a  man  on  board  the  Eendracht.  The  two 
Dutch  prisoners  were  safely  returned  the  next 
day  in  exchange  for  the  Portuguese  hostages, 
but  Van  Noort  was  obliged  to  leave  the  town 
without  getting  his  provisions.  Therefore  a  few 
days  later  he  landed  on  a  small  island  near  the 
coast  where  he  found  water  and  fruit,  and  his 
men  caught  fish  and  wild  birds  and  were  happy. 
Again  the  Portuguese  interfered.  They  had 
ordered  a  number  of  Indians  to  follow  the  Dutch 
fleet    and    do    whatever    damage    they    could. 

171 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

When  a  Dutch  boat  with  six  men  came  rowing 
to  the  shore  it  was  suddenly  attacked  by  a  large 
number  of  Indians  in  canoes.  Two  of  the  six 
men  were  killed.  The  other  four  were  taken 
prisoner  and  were  never  seen  again. 

Of  course  adventures  of  this  sort  were  not 
very  encouraging.  Some  of  the  officers  sug- 
gested that,  after  all,  it  might  be  a  better  idea 
to  discontinue  the  voyage  around  the  South 
American  coast  before  it  was  too  late.  They 
proposed  that  the  ships  should  cross  the  Atlantic 
once  more,  and  should  either  go  to  St.  Helena 
and  wait  there  until  the  next  spring  or  should 
sail  to  India  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope; 
for  it  was  now  the  month  of  March,  and  in  that 
part  of  the  world  our  summer  is  winter  and  our 
winter  is  summer.  Wherefore  they  greatly 
feared  that  the  ships  could  not  reach  the  Strait 
of  Magellan  before  the  winter  storms  of  July 
should  set  in.  It  was  upon  such  occasions  that 
Van  Noort  showed  his  courage  and  his  resolute 
spirit.  His  expedition  was  in  bad  shape.  One 
of  the  ships,  the  Eendracht,  was  leaking  badly. 
Through  the  bad  water,  the  hard  work,  and  the 

172 


5|a^ 


u.,' 


:-i^' 


.'/i 


■  «,.  L  ^  ^ .  u.  '1 


t*--- 


N^-n/.t 


.feL 


>? 


.     DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

insufficient  food  a  large  number  of  sailors  had 
fallen  ill,  and  every  day  some  of  them  died. 
Wherever  the  expedition  tried  to  land  on  the 
coast  of  Brazil  to  get  water  and  supplies  they 
found  strong  Portuguese  detachments  which 
drove  them  away.  Not  for  a  moment,  however, 
did  Van  Noort  dream  of  giving  up  his  original 
plans. 

At  last,  after  many  weeks  and  by  mere  chance, 
he  found  a  little  island  called  St.  Clara  where 
there  were  no  Portuguese  and  no  unfriendly 
natives  and  where  he  could  build  a  fort  on  shore 
to  land  the  sick  men  and  cure  them  of  their 
scurvy  with  fresh  herbs.  The  expedition  re- 
mained on  Santa  Clara  for  three  weeks.  Grad- 
ually the  strength  of  the  men  returned,  but  they 
were  still  very  weak,  and  it  was  now  necessary 
that  they  should  get  plenty  of  exercise  in  the 
open  air.  Therefore  the  admiral  ordered  the 
kitchens  to  be  built  at  a  short  distance  from  the 
fort.  Those  men  who  walked  out  to  the  kitchen 
got  more  dinner  than  those  who  demanded  that 
their  food  be  brought  to  them.     Soon  they  all 

174 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

walked,  and  they  greatly  benefited  by  this  little 
scheme  of  their  commander.  On  June  28  they 
were  able  to  go  back  to  the  ship,  and  then  they 
set  sail  for  the  south.  Two  men,  however,  who 
had  caused  trouble  since  the  beginning  of  the 
voyage  and  who  seemed  to  be  incorrigible  were 
left  behind  on  the  island  to  get  home  as  best  they 
could.  They  never  did.  Even  such  a  severe 
punishment  was  not  a  deterrent.  A  few  days 
later  a  sailor  attacked  and  wounded  one  of  the 
officers  with  a  knife.  He  was  spiked  to  the 
mast  with  the  same  knife  stuck  through  his  right 
hand.  Then  he  was  left  standing  until  he  had 
pulled  the  knife  out  himself.  It  was  a  very 
rough  crew,  and  only  a  system  of  discipline  en- 
forced in  this  cruel  fashion  saved  the  officers 
from  being  murdered  and  thrown  overboard,  so 
that  the  men  might  return  home  or  become 
pirates. 

I  have  just  mentioned  the  bad  condition  of 
the  Eendracht.  The  ship  was  so  unseaworthy, 
and  so  great  was  the  danger  of  drowning  all  on 
board,  that  Van  Noort  at  last  decided  to  sacri- 

175 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

fice  the  vessel.  The  sailors  were  divided  among 
the  other  ships,  and  the  Eendracht  was  burned 
off  the  coast  of  Brazil. 

Van  Noort  now  reached  the  southern  part  of 
the  American  continent. 

The  Strait  of  Magellan  had  been  discovered 
in  1530.  But  even  in  the  year  1598  it  was  little 
known.  The  few  mariners  who  had  passed 
through  had  all  told  of  the  difficulty  of  navigat- 
ing these  narrows,  with  their  swift  currents  run- 
ning from  ocean  to  ocean  and  their  terrible 
storms,  not  to  speak  of  the  fog.  Crossing  from 
the  Atlantic  into  the  Pacific  was  therefore  some- 
thing which  was  considered  a  very  difficult  feat, 
and  Van  Noort  did  not  dare  to  risk  it  with  his 
ships  in  their  bad  condition.  He  made  for  the 
little  Island  of  Porto  Deseado,  which  Cavendish 
had  discovered  only  a  few  years  before.  There 
was  a  sand-bank  near  the  coast,  and  upon  this  the 
ships  were  anchored  at  high  tide.  Then,  when 
the  tide  fell,  the  ships  were  left  on  the  dry  sand, 
and  the  men  had  several  hours  in  which  to  clean, 
tar,  and  calk  them  and  generally  overhaul 
everything    that    needed    repairing.     On    the 

176 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

shore  of  the  island  a  regular  smithy  was  con- 
structed. For  three  months  everybody  worked 
hard  to  get  the  vessels  in  proper  condition  for 
the  dangerous  voyage. 

While  they  were  on  the  island  the  captain  of 
the  Hope  died.     He  was  buried  with  great  so- 


lemnity, and  the  former  captain  of  the  Een- 
dracht  was  made  commander  of  the  Hope, 
which  was  rebaptized  the  Eendracht.  This 
word  means  harmony  in  Dutch,  and  the  Good 
Lord  knows  that  they  needed  harmony  during 
the  many  difficult  months  which  were  to  follow. 
On  November   5,   fourteen  months   after  Van 

177 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Noort  left  Holland,  and  when  the  number  of 
his  men  had  been  reduced  to  148,  he  at  last 
reached  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  The  ship  of 
the  admiral  entered  the  strait  first,  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  new  Eendracht.  The  Henrick 
Frederick,  however,  commanded  by  Jacob 
Claesz,  the  vice-admiral,  went  her  own  way. 
Van  Noort  signaled  to  this  ship  to  keep  close  to 
the  Mauritius,  but  he  never  received  an  answer. 
Van  Noort  then  ordered  Claesz  to  come  to  the 
admiral's  vessel  and  give  an  account  of  himself. 
The  only  answer  which  he  received  to  that  mes- 
sage was  that  Captain  Claesz  was  just  as  good 
as  Admiral  van  Noort,  and  was  going  to  do  just 
exactly  what  he  pleased. 

This  was  a  case  of  open  rebellion,  but  Van 
Noort  was  so  busy  navigating  the  difficult  cur- 
rent that  he  could  not  stop  to  make  an  investi- 
gation. Four  times  his  ship  was  driven  back  by 
the  strong  wind.  At  the  fifth  attempt  the  ship 
at  last  passed  the  first  narrows  and  anchored 
well  inside  the  strait.  The  next  day  they  passed 
a  high  mountain  which  they  called  Cape  Nas- 
sau, and  where  they  saw  many  natives  running 

179 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

toward  the  shore.  The  natives  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  continent  were  not  like  the  ordinary 
Indian  with  whom  the  Hollanders  were  fa- 
miliar. They  were  very  strong  and  brave  and 
caused  the  Hollanders  much  difficulty.  They 
handled  bows  and  arrows  well,  and  their  coats, 
made  of  skin,  gave  them  a  general  appearance 
of  greater  civilization  than  anybody  had  ex- 
pected to  find  in  this  distant  part  of  the  world. 
When  the  Dutch  sailors  rowed  to  the  shore  of 
the  strait,  the  Indians  attacked  them  at  once.  It 
was  an  unequal  battle  of  arrows  against  bullets. 
The  natives  were  driven  back  into  their  moun- 
tains, where  they  defended  themselves  in  front 
of  a  large  hollow  rock.  At  last,  however,  all 
the  men  had  been  killed,  and  then  the  sailors 
discovered  that  the  grotto  was  filled  with  many 
women  and  children.  They  did  not  harm 
these,  but  captured  four  small  boys  and  two  lit- 
tle girls  to  take  home  to  Holland.  It  seems  to 
have  been  an  inveterate  habit  of  early  expedi- 
tions to  distant  countries  to  take  home  some 
natives  as  curiosities.  Beginning  with  Colum- 
bus, every  explorer  had  brought  a  couple  of 

1 80 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

natives  with  him  when  he  returned  home.  The 
poor  things  usually  died  of  small-pox  or  con- 
sumption or  some  other  civilized  disease.     In 


iSi*^^.,--,'-'^  '      ScMcltS^^^^^^^n^^^Pvp^n  O^tlLui, 


case  they  kept  alive,  they  became  a  sort  of 
nondescript  town-curiosity.  What  Van  Noort 
intended  to  do  with  little  Patagonians  in  Rotter- 
dam I  do  not  know,  but  he  had  half  a  dozen  on 
board  when  on  November  28  his  two  ships 
reached  the  spot  where  they  expected  to  find  a 
strong  Spanish  castle. 

This  fortress,  so  they  knew,  had  been  built 

181 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

after  the  attack  of  Drake  on  the  west  coast  of 
America.  Drake's  expedition  had  caused  a 
panic  among  the  Spanish  settlements  of  Chile 
and  Peru.  Orders  had  come  from  Madrid  to 
fortify  the  Strait  of  Magellan  and  close  the  nar- 
rows to  all  foreign  vessels.  A  castle  had  been 
built  and  a  garrison  had  been  sent.  Then,  how- 
ever, as  happened  often  in  Spain,  the  home 
government  had  forgotten  all  about  this  isolated 
spot.  No  provisions  had  been  forwarded.  The 
country  itself,  being  barren  and  cold,  did  not 
raise  anything  which  a  Spaniard  could  eat. 
After  a  few  years  the  castle  had  been  deserted. 
When  Cavendish  sailed  through  the  strait  he 
had  taken  the  few  remaining  cannon  out  of  the 
ruins.  Van  Noort  did  not  even  find  the  ruins. 
Two  whole  months  Van  Noort  spent  in  the 
strait.  He  took  his  time  in  this  part  of  the  voy- 
age. He  dropped  anchor  in  a  bay  which  he 
called  Olivier's  Bay,  and  there  began  to  build 
some  new  life-boats. 

After  a  few  days  the  mutinous  Henrick  Fred- 
erick  also  appeared  in  this  bay.  Van  Noort 
asked  Claesz  to  come  on  board  his  ship  and  ex- 

182 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

plain  his  strange  conduct.  The  vice-admiral 
refused  to  obey.  He  was  taken  prisoner,  and 
brought  before  a  court-martial.  We  do  not 
know  the  real  grounds  for  the  strange  conduct 
of  Claesz.  He  might  have  known  that  disci- 
pline in  those  days  meant  something  brutally 
severe;  and  yet  he  disobeyed  his  admiral's  posi- 
tive orders,  and  when  he  was  brought  before  the 
court-martial  he  could  not  or  would  not  defend 
himself.  He  was  found  guilty,  and  he  was  con- 
demned to  be  put  on  shore.  He  was  given  some 
bread  and  some  wine,  and  when  the  fleet  sailed 
away  he  was  left  behind  all  alone.  There  was 
of  course  a  chance  that  another  ship  would  pick 
him  up.  A  few  weeks  before  other  Dutch  ships 
had  been  in  the  strait.  But  this  chance  was  a 
very  small  one,  and  the  sailors  of  Van  Noort 
knew  it.  They  said  a  prayer  for  the  soul  of 
their  former  captain  who  was  condemned  to  die 
a  miserable  death  far  away  from  home.  Yet  no 
one  objected  to  this  punishment.  Navigation 
to  the  Indies  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  as 
dangerous  as  war,  and  insubordination  could 
not  be  tolerated,  not  even  when  the  man  who 

183 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

refused  to  obey  orders  was  one  of  the  original 
investors  of  the  expedition  and  second  in  com- 
mand. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  of  February  Van  Noort 
reached  the  Pacific.  The  last  mile  from  the 
strait  into  the  open  sea  took  him  four  weeks. 
He  now  sailed  northward  along  the  coast  of 
South  America.  Two  weeks  later,  during  a 
storm,  the  Henrick  Frederick  disappeared. 
Such  an  occurrence  had  been  foreseen.  Van 
Noort  had  told  his  captains  to  meet  him  near 
the  island  of  Santa  Maria  in  case  they  should 
become  separated  from  him  during  the  night  or 
in  a  fog.  Therefore  he  did  not  worry  about  the 
fate  of  the  ship,  but  sailed  for  the  coast  of  Chile. 

After  a  short  visit  and  a  meeting  with  some 
natives,  who  told  him  that  they  hated  the  Span- 
iards and  welcomed  the  Hollanders  as  their  de- 
fenders against  the  Spanish  oppressors.  Van 
Noort  reached  the  island  of  Santa  Maria.  In 
the  distance  he  saw  a  ship.  Of  course  he 
thought  that  this  must  be  his  own  lost  vessel 
waiting  for  him;  but  when  he  came  near,  the 
strange  ship  hoisted  her  sails  and  fled.     It  was 

184 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

a  Spaniard  called  the  Buen  Jesus.  The  Dutch 
admiral  could  not  allow  this  ship  to  escape.  It 
might  have  warned  the  Spanish  admiral  in 
Lima,  and  then  Van  Noort  would  have  been 


obliged  to  fight  the  entire  Spanish  Pacific  fleet. 
The  Eendracht  was  ordered  to  catch  the  Buen 
Jesus.  This  she  did,  for  the  Dutch  ships  could 
sail  faster  than  the  Spanish  ones,  though  they 
were  smaller.  Van  Noort  had  done  wisely. 
The  Spaniard  was  one  of  a  large  fleet  detailed 
to  watch  the  arrival  of  the  Dutch  vessels.  The 
year  before  another  Dutch  fleet  had  reached  the 
Pacific.     It  suffered   a  defeat  at  the  hands  of 

185 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

the  Spaniards.  This  had  served  as  a  warning. 
The  Hollanders  did  not  have  the  reputation  of 
giving  up  an  enterprise  when  once  they  had 
started  upon  it,  and  the  Spanish  fleet  was  kept 
cruising  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Pacific  to 
destroy  whatever  Dutch  ships  might  try  to  enter 
the  private  domains  of  Spain. 

From  that  moment  Van  Noort's  voyage  and 
his  ships  in  the  Pacific  were  as  safe  as  a  man 
smoking  a  pipe  in  a  powder-magazine.  They 
might  be  destroyed  at  any  moment.  As  a  best 
means  of  defense,  the  Hollanders  decided  to 
make  a  great  show  of  strength.  They  did  not 
wait  for  the  assistance  of  the  Henrick  Frederick, 
but  sailed  at  once  to  Valparaiso,  took  several 
Spanish  ships  anchored  in  the  roads,  and  burned 
all  of  the  others  except  one,  which  was  added 
to  the  Dutch  fleet.  From  the  captain  of  the 
Buen  Jesus  Van  Noort  had  heard  that  a  number 
of  Hollanders  were  imprisoned  in  the  castle  of 
Valparaiso.  He  sent  ashore,  asking  for  infor- 
mation, and  he  received  letters  from  a  Dutch- 
man, asking  for  help. 

Van  Noort,  however,  was  too  weak  to  attack 

i86 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

the  town,  but  he  thought  that  something  might 
be  done  in  this  case  through  kindness.  So  he 
set  all  the  crew  of  the  Buen  Jesus  except  the 
mate  free,  and  him  he  kept  as  an  hostage,  and 
sent  the  men  to  the  Spanish  commander  with 
^  his  compliments.  Thereupon  he  continued  his 
voyage,  but  was  careful  to  stay  away  from  Lima, 
where  he  knew  there  were  three  large  Spanish 
vessels  waiting  for  him.  Instead  of  that,  he 
made  for  the  Cape  of  San  Francisco,  where  he 
hoped  to  capture  the  Peruvian  silver  fleet. 
Quite  accidentally,  however,  he  discovered  that 
he  was  about  to  run  into  another  trap.  Some 
Negro  slaves  who  had  been  on  board  the  Buen 
Jesus,  and  who  were  now  with  Van  Noort, 
spread  the  rumor  that  more  than  fifty  thousand 
pounds  of  gold  which  had  been  on  the  Buen 
Jesus  had  been  thrown  overboard  just  before  the 
Hollanders  captured  the  vessel.  The  mate  of 
the  ship  was  still  on  the  Mauritius,  and  he  was 
asked  if  this  was  true.  He  denied  it,  but  he 
denied  it  in  such  a  fashion  that  it  was  hard  to 
believe  him.  Therefore  he  was  tortured.  Not 
very  much,  but  just  enough  to  make  him  desir- 

187 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

ous  of  telling  the  truth.  He  then  told  that  the 
gold  had  actually  been  on  board  the  Buen  Jesus; 
and  since  he  was  once  confessing,  he  volun- 
teered further  information,  and  now  told  Van 
Noort  that  the  captain  of  the  Buen  Jesus  and  he 
had  arranged  to  warn  the  Spanish  fleet  to  await 
the  Hollanders  near  Cape  San  Francisco  and  to 
attack  them  there  while  the  Hollanders  were 
watching  the  coast  of  Peru  for  the  Peruvian 
silver  fleet.  No  further  information  was 
wanted,  and  the  Spaniard  was  released.  He 
might  have  taken  this  episode  as  a  warning  to 
be  on  his  good  behavior.  Thus  far  he  had  been 
well  treated.  He  slept  and  took  his  meals  in 
Van  Noort's  own  cabin.  But  soon  afterward  he 
tried  to  start  a  mutiny  among  the  Negro  slaves 
who  had  served  with  him  on  the  Spanish  man- 
of-war.  Without  further  trial  he  was  then 
thrown  overboard. 

The  expedition  against  the  silver  fleet,  how- 
ever, had  to  be  given  up.     It  would  have  been ' 
too  dangerous.     It  became  necessary  to  leave 
the  eastern  part  of  the  Pacific  and  to  cross  to  the 
Indies  as  fast  as  possible.     The  Spanish  ship 

i88 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

which  had  been  captured  in  Valparaiso  proved 
to  be  a  bad  sailor  and  was  burned.  The  two 
Dutch  ships,  with  a  crew  of  about  a  hundred 
men,  sailed  alone  for  the  Marianne  Islands. 
Some  travelers  have  called  these  islands  the 
Ladrones.  That  means  the  islands  of  the 
Thieves,  and  the  natives  who  came  flocking  out 
to  the  ships  showed  that  they  deserved  this 
designation.  They  were  very  nimble-fingered, 
and  they  stole  whatever  they  could  find.  They 
would  climb  on  board  the  ships  of  Van  Noort, 
take  some  knives  or  merely  a  piece  of  old  iron, 
and  before  anybody  could  prevent  them  they 
had  dived  overboard  and  had  disappeared 
under  water.  All  day  long  their  little  canoes 
swarmed  around  the  Dutch  ships.  They  of- 
fered many  things  for  sale,  but  they  were  very 
dishonest  in  trade,  and  the  rice  they  sold  was 
full  of  stones,  and  the  bottoms  of  their  rice  bas- 
kets were  filled  with  cocoanuts.  Two  days  were 
spent  getting  fresh  water  and  buying  food,  and 
then  Van  Noort  sailed  for  the  Philippine  Is- 
lands. On  the  fourteenth  of  October  of  the  year 
1600  he  landed  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Luzon. 

189 


1%  tJy/'^^'M^::  W'W  }  \^'j 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

By  this  time  the  Dutch  ships  were  in  the  heart 
of  the  Spanish  colonies,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
be  very  careful  not  to  be  detected  as  Holland- 
ers. The  natives  on  shore,  who  had  seen  them 
in  the  distance,  warned  the  Spanish  authorities, 
and  early  in  the  morning  a  sloop  rowed  by 
natives  brought  a  Spanish  officer. 

Van  Noort  arranged  a  fine  little  comedy  for 
his  benefit.  He  hoisted  the  Spanish  flag  and 
he  dressed  a  number  of  his  men  in  cowls,  so  that 
they  would  look  like  monks.  These  peeped 
over  the  bulwarks  when  the  Spaniard  came 
near,  mumbling  their  prayers  with  great  devo- 
tion. 

Van  Noort  himself,  with  the  courtesy  of  the 
professional  innkeeper,  received  his  guest,  and 
in  fluent  French  told  him  that  his  ship  was 
French  and  that  he  was  trading  in  this  part  of 
the  Indies  with  the  special  permission  of  his 
Majesty  the  Spanish  king.  He  regretted  to  in- 
form his  visitor  that  his  first  mate  had  just  died 
and  that  he  did  not  know  exactly  in  which  part 
of  the  Indies  his  ship  had  landed.  Further- 
more he  told  the  Spaniard  that  he  was  sadly  in 

191 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

need  of  provisions  and  this  excellent  boarding 
officer  was  completely  taken  in  by  the  comedy 
and  at  once  gave  Van  Noort  rice  and  a  number 
of  live  pigs.  The  next  day  a  higher  officer 
made  his  appearance.  Again  that  story  of  be- 
ing a  French  ship  was  told,  and,  what  is  more, 
was  believed.  Van  Noort  was  allowed  to  buy 
what  he  wanted  and  to  drop  anchor  on  the  coast. 
To  expedite  his  work,  he  sent  one  of  his  sailors 
who  spoke  Spanish  fluently  to  the  shore.  This 
man  reported  that  the  Spaniards  never  even  con- 
sidered the  possibility  of  an  attack  by  Dutch 
ships  so  far  away  from  home  and  so  well  pro- 
tected by  their  fleet  in  the  Pacific.  Everything 
seemed  safe. 

But  at  last  the  Spaniards,  who  had  heard  a 
lot  about  the  wonderful  commission  given  to 
this  strange  captain  by  the  King  of  France  and 
the  King  of  Spain,  but  who  had  never  seen  it, 
became  curious.  Quite  suddenly  they  sent  a 
captain  accompanied  by  a  learned  priest  who 
could  verify  the  documents.  It  was  a  difficult 
case  for  the  Dutch  admiral.  His  official  letters 
were  all  signed  by  the  man  with  whom  Spain 

192 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

was  in  open  warfare,  Prince  Maurice  of  Nas- 
sau. When  this  name  was  found  at  the  bottom 
of  Van  Noort's  documents,  his  little  comedy  was 
over.  Nobody  thereafter  was  allowed  to  leave 
the  ship,  and  the  natives  were  forbidden  to  trade 
with  the  Hollander.  Van  Noort,  however,  had 
obtained  the  supplies  he  needed.  He  had  an 
abundance  of  fresh  provisions,  and  two  natives 
had  been  hired  to  act  as  pilot  in  the  straits  be- 
tween the  different  Philippine  Islands. 

The  next  few  weeks  Van  Noort  actually  spent 
among  those  islands,  and  with  his  two  ships  ter- 
ribly battered  after  a  voyage  of  more  than  two 
years  of  travel  he  spread  terror  among  the  Span- 
iards. Many  ships  were  taken,  and  landing 
parties  destroyed  villages  and  houses.  Finally 
he  even  dared  to  sail  into  the  Bay  of  Manila. 
Under  the  guns  of  the  Spanish  fleet  he  set  fire 
to  a  number  of  native  ships,  and  then  spent  sev- 
eral days  in  front  of  the  harbor  taking  the  cargo 
out  of  the  ships  which  came  to  the  Spanish 
capital  to  pay  tribute.  As  a  last  insult,  he  sent 
a  message  to  the  Spanish  governor  to  tell  him 
that  he  intended  to  visit  his  capital  shortly,  and 

193 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

then  got  ready  to  depart  for  further  conquest. 
He  had  waited  just  a  few  hours  too  long  and 
he  had  been  just  a  trifle  too  brave,  for  before  he 


could  get  ready  for  battle  his  ships  were  at- 
tacked by  two  large  Spanish  men-of-war.  The 
Mauritius  was  captured.  That  is  to  say,  the 
Spaniards  drove  all  the  Hollanders  from  her 
deck  and  jumped  on  board.  But  the  crew 
fought  so  bravely  from  below  with  guns  and 
spears  and  small  cannon  that  the  Spaniards  were 
driven  back  to  their  own  ship.     It  was  a  des- 

194 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

perate  fight.  If  the  Hollanders  had  been  taken 
prisoner,  they  would  have  been  hanged  with- 
out trial.  Van  Noort  encouraged  his  men,  and 
told  them  that  he  would  blow  up  the  ship  before 
he  would  surrender.  Even  those  who  were 
wounded  fought  like  angry  cats.  At  last  a 
lucky  shot  from  the  Mauritius  hit  the  largest 
Spaniard  beneath  the  water-line.  It  was  the 
ship  of  the  admiral  of  Manila,  and  at  once  be- 
gan to  sink.  There  was  no  hope  for  any  one  on 
board  her.  In  the  distance  Van  Noort  could 
see  that  the  Eendracht,  which  had  only  twenty- 
five  men,  had  just  been  taken  by  the  other  Span- 
ish ship.  With  his  own  wounded  crew  he  could 
not  go  to  her  assistance.  To  save  his  own  ves- 
sel, he  was  obliged  to  escape  as  fast  as  possible. 
He  hoisted  his  sails  as  well  as  he  could  with  the 
few  sailors  who  had  been  left  unharmed.  Of 
fifty-odd  men  five  were  dead  and  twenty-six 
were  badly  wounded.  Right  through  the 
quiet  sea,  strewn  with  pieces  of  wreckage  and 
scores  of  men  clinging  to  masts  and  boxes  and 
tables,  the  Mauritius  made  her  way.  With 
cannon  and  guns  and  spears  the  survivors  on  the 

195 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Mauritius  killed  as  many  Spaniards  as  possible. 
The  others  were  left  to  drown.  Then  the  ship 
was  cleaned,  the  dead  Spaniards  were  thrown 
overboard,  and  piloted  by  two  Chinese  traders 
who  were  picked  up  during  the  voyage,  Van 
Noort  safely  reached  the  coast  of  Borneo. 
Here  the  natives  almost  succeeded  in  killing  the 
rest  of  his  men.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  they 
tried  to  cut  the  cables  of  the  last  remaining 
anchor.  The  Mauritius  would  have  been  driven 
on  shore,  and  the  natives  could  have  plundered 
her  at  leisure;  but  their  plan  was  discovered  by 
the  Hollanders.  A  second  attempt  to  hide 
eighty  well-armed  men  in  a  large  canoe  which 
was  pretending  to  bring  a  gift  of  several 
oxen  came  to  nothing  when  the  natives  saw  that 
Van  Noort's  men  made  ready  to  fire  their 
cannon. 

Another  year  had  now  gone  by.  It  was  Jan- 
uary of  1601,  and  Van  Noort's  condition  was 
still  very  dangerous.  There  were  no  supplies 
on  board.  The  Chinese  pilots  did  not  know  the 
coast  of  Borneo.  There  were  many  islands  and 
many  straits,  and  Van  Noort  had  lost  all  idea 

196 


'^K  V  til. 


■i,';;i4Mr.  ...f. 


i     ■ ' 


III 


"^  '^'l!l ;  I'M/,!  "J 

■  1 


.■1. '.  ' '  I  A'j'Mi 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

as  to  his  exact  position.  When  he  met  a  Chi- 
nese vessel  on  the  way  to  India  he  forced  it  to 
heave  to  and  stole  the  mate,  who  was  an  experi- 
enced sailor.  Then  the  wind  suddenly  refused 
to  blow  from  the  right  direction,  and  it  was 
many  weeks  before  the  Mauritius  reached  the 
harbor  of  Cheribon,  in  the  central  part  of  Java, 
many  miles  away  from  Bantam. 

Van  Noort  called  upon  his  few  remaining  of- 
ficers to  decide  what  they  ought  to  do.  If  his 
expedition  were  to  be  a  financial  success,  he 
must  find  some  place  where  he  could  buy  spices. 
Bantam  was  near  by,  but  according  to  the  sto- 
ries of  Houtman  and  his  expedition,  the  people 
in  Bantam  were  very  unfriendly.  With  his 
twenty-three  men  the  Dutch  commander  did 
not  dare  to  risk  another  battle.  It  is  true  that 
since  the  visit  of  Houtman  his  successor  Van 
Neck  had  established  very  good  relations  with 
the  sultan;  but  Van  Noort  had  been  away  from 
home  for  over  three  years,  and  knew  nothing  of 
Van  Neck's  voyage. 

He  might  have  guessed  that  there  were  Hol- 
landers in   Bantam  when  he  found  that  there 

199 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

were  no  spices  to  be  had  in  any  of  the  other 
Javanese  ports.  Wherever  he  went  he  heard 
the  same  story.  All  the  spices  were  now  being 
sent  to  Bantam,  where  the  Hollanders  paid  a 
very  high  price  for  them.  But  Van  Noort  dis- 
trusted this  report.  It  might  be  another  plot 
of  the  Portuguese  to  catch  him,  and  to  keep  out 
of  harm's  way,  he  sailed  through  the  straits  of 
Bali,  avoided  the  north  coast  of  Java  and  went 
to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

The  home  trip  was  the  most  successful  part 
of  the  entire  voyage.  It  is  true  that,  without 
good  instruments,  the  Dutch  ships  once  more 
lost  their  bearings.  They  thought  that  they 
were  two  hundred  miles  away  from  the  coast  of 
Africa  when  they  had  already  passed  the  cape. 
On  the  twenty-sixth  of  May  Van  Noort  landed 
at  St.  Helena.  Three  weeks  later  he  met  a 
large  fleet.  The  ships  flew  the  Dutch  flag. 
They  were  part  of  a  squadron  commanded  by 
Jacob  van  Heemskerk,  outward  bound  for  their 
second  voyage  to  India.  From  them  the  Hol- 
landers got  their  first  news  from  home;  how 
Van  Neck's  expedition  had  been  a  great  success, 

200 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

and  how  Bantam,  which  had  been  carefully 
avoided,  was  now  a  Dutch  settlement.  Van 
Noort  told  them  of  his  fight  with  the  Spanish 
fleet  in  dififerent  parts  of  the  Pacific,  and  in  turn 
he  was  informed  of  the  great  victory  which 
Prince  Maurice  had  just  won  over  the  Span- 
iards near  Nieuwpoort  which  had  assured  the 
Dutch  Republic  its  final  liberty.  Then  both 
fleets  continued  their  voyage.  On  the  twenty- 
eighth  of  August  Van  Noort  and  forty-four  out 
of  the  two  hundred  and  forty-eight  who  had 
sailed  away  with  him  three  years  before  came 
back  to  Rotterdam. 

The  next  year  a  few  other  men  who  had  be- 
longed to  the  expedition  reached  Holland. 
They  had  served  on  the  Henrick  Frederick 
which  had  disappeared  just  after  Van  Noort 
had  left  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  They  had 
waited  for  their  commander  near  the  island  of 
Santa  Maria,  but  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish 
man-of-war  had  spoiled  all  idea  of  meeting 
each  other  on  that  spot.  The  Henrick  Frede- 
rick had  crossed  the  Pacific  alone.  Many  of 
her  men  had  died,  and  the  others  were  so  weak 

202 


CIRCUMNAVIGATES  THE  WORLD 

that  when  they  reached  the  Moluccas  they 
could  no  longer  handle  the  ship.  They  had 
sold  it  to  the  Sultan  of  Ternate  for  some  bags 
of  nutmeg,  and  with  a  small  sloop  of  their  own 
construction  they  had  reached  Bantam  in  April 
of  the  year  1602.  There  they  had  found  a  part 
of  the  same  fleet  of  Heemskerk  which  Van 
Noort  had  met  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  On  one 
of  the  ships  rhany  sailors  had  just  died.  Their 
place  had  been  offered  to  the  men  of  the  old 
Henrick  Frederick.  In  the  winter  of  1602 
they  returned  to  their  home  city. 

That  ended  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the 
expeditions  which  tried  to  establish  for  the^ 
Hollanders  a  new  route  to  the  Indies  through 
the  Strait  of  Magellan.  But  while  Van  Noort 
was  in  the  Pacific  the  route  of  the  cape  had 
proved  to  be  such  a  great  and  easy  success  that 
further  attempts  to  reach  Java  and  the  Moluc- 
cas by  way  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan  were  here- 
after given  up.  The  Pacific  trading  companies 
were  changed  into  ordinary  Indian  companies 
which  sent  all  their  ships  around  the  cape.  As 
for  Van  Noort,  who  was  the  first  Hollander  to 

203 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

sail  around  the  world,  he  entered  the  naval 
service  of  the  republic,  and  had  a  chance  to 
practise  his  very  marked  ability  as  a  leader  of 
men  in  more  dangerous  circumstances.  As  an 
Indian  trader  he  vs^ould  not  have  been  a  great 
success.  The  old  irresponsible  buccaneering 
days  of  that  trade  were  gone  forever.  The  dif- 
ficult art  of  founding  a  commercial  empire  by 
persuasion  rather  than  by  force  was  put  into 
the  hands  of  men  who  were  not  only  brave,  but 
also  tactful. 


204 


THE  ATTACK  UPON  THE  WEST 
COAST  OF  AMERICA 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ATTACK  UPON  THE  WEST 
COAST  OF  AMERICA 

THIS   is  the  story  of   another  expedi- 
tion which  tried  to  get  possession  of 
the  Indian  route  by  way  of  the  Strait^ 
of  Magellan.     It  was  a  sad  busines^^"^ 

Oliver  Van  Noort,  although  he  met  with 
many  difficulties,  managed  to  bring  one  ship 
home  and  added  greatly  to  the  fame  of  the 
Dutch  navigators.  But  the  second  expedition, 
equipped  by  two  of  the  richest  men  of  Rotter- 
dam and  sent  out  under  the  best  of  auspices, 
proved  to  be  a  total  failure.  The  capital  of 
half  a  million  guilders  which  had  been  invested 
was  an  absolute  loss.  Most  of  the  participants 
in  the  voyage  died.  The  ships  were  lost.  Per- 
haps everything  had  been  prepared  just  a  trifle 
too  carefully.     Van  Noort,  with  his  little  ships, 

207 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

knew  that  he  had  to  depend  upon  his  own 
energy  and  resourcefulness;  but  the  captains  of 
the  five  ships  which  left  Rotterdam  on  the 
twenty-seventh  of  July,  1598,  with  almost  five 
hundred  men  were  under  the  impression  that 

^c^epen  (Die  int/aeri  5  9  s.tot  Bottertiam  toegljernfi  torrDm/  cm  DoorOe 

^trart  Mageiianajjaren  tisnitl  tc  IttpboDtortcnjaren  is/totDmr-^Scpttmber  i599.to«/  op 


iiJlKlre06tiMBfon5frfci)uptoftbi)ot/masrfcnsjiritfrbfljouben8e 
OOOjfpwflftBjmaflfniJcnoattoc&rrnaerfjupsibctftmottcniwmn. 

niOTbefcfcjettcn&oo?  M.Barent  lanfe.Cirurgyti. 


lijcnocy 


rAnvIlerdaffl,byZachaiiasHcijnSj!ndeWinnoe(kaet,indcHooRHlueg^da« 

half  of  the  work  had  been  done  at  home  by  the 
owners.  Perhaps,  too,  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
luck  in  navigating  the  high  seas.  One  fleet  sails 
for  the  Indies  and  has  good  weather  all  the  way 
across  the  ocean.  When  the  wind  blows  hard 
it  blows  from  the  right  direction.     The  next 

208 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

squadron  which  leaves  two  weeks  later  meets 
with  storms  and  suffers  from  one  unfortunate 
accident  after  the  other;  everybody  gets  sick, 
and  when  the  sailors  look  for  relief  on  land  they 
find  nothing  but  a  barren  desert.  And  so  it 
goes.  It  is  not  for  us  to  complain,  but  to  recite 
faithfully  the  sad  adventures  of  the  good  ships 
the  Hoop,  the  Liefde,  the  Geloof,  the  Trouwe, 
and  the  Blyde  Boodschap,  all  of  which  tried 
very  hard  to  accomplish  what  Van  Noort  had 
been  allowed  to  do  with  much  less  trouble. 

The  ships,  as  we  said,  left  Rotterdam  in  July, 
and  after  two  months  they  reached  the  Cape 
Verde  Islands.  There  they  found  a  couple  of 
ships  from  Hamburg,  for  the  Germans  at  the 
early  period  of  exploring  and  discoveries  were 
very  active  sailors.  A  few  years  later,  how- 
ever, the  Thirty  Years'  War  was  to  destroy  their 
seafaring  enterprises  for  centuries  at  least. 

Near  these  islands  the  Hollanders  had  their 
first  encounter  with  the  Portuguese.  The  sto- 
ries of  such  meetings  between  the  early  Dutch 
navigators  and  the  Portuguese  owners  of  Afri- 
can and  Asiatic  islands  always  read  the  same 

209 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

way.  The  Hollanders  ask  for  leave  to  go  on 
shore  to  get  fresh  water  and  to  buy  provisions. 
This  leave  is  never  granted.  Then  the  two 
parties  fight  each  other.  In  most  cases  the 
Hollanders  are  victorious,  though  they  still 
have  too  much  respect  for  the  traditional  power 
of  the  Portuguese  to  risk  a  definite  attack  upon 
their  strongholds.  Very  slowly  and  only  after 
many  years  of  experiment  do  they  venture  to 
drive  the  Portuguese  out  of  their  colonies  and 
take  possession  of  this  large,  but  badly  managed, 
empire. 

When  our  five  Dutch  ships  reached  the  is- 
land of  San  Thome  they  sent  a  messenger  to  the 
Portuguese  commander  and  asked  him,  please, 
to  give  them  some  fresh  water.  The  Portu- 
guese told  the  Hollanders  to  wait.  But  they 
could  not  wait,  for  the  water  on  board  the  ships 
had  all  been  used  up.  Therefore  they  landed 
with  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  and  charged 
the  hill  upon  which  the  Portuguese  had  built  a 
fortress.  The  garrison  was  forced  to  surren- 
der. Before  any  more  fighting  took  place  the 
Portuguese  offered  to  treat  the  Hollanders  as 

210 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

welcome  guests  if  they  would  sail  to  the  next 
harbor  of  San  lago,  where  there  was  an  abun-  ' 
dance  of  stores  and  where  general  provisions 
were  for  sale  at  reasonable  prices.  This  pro- 
posal was  accepted.  The  sailors  went  back  to 
their  ships  and  made  for  San  lago.  The  wind, 
however,  was  not  favorable,  and  they  did  not 
reach  their  destination  until  the  hour  appointed 
to  meet  the  Portuguese  officials  had  passed. 
When  they  arrived  near  the  shore  they  noticed 
that  the  soldiers  on  land  were  very  active  and 
had  placed  a  number  of  cannon  in  an  ambush 
from  which  they  could  destroy  the  Dutch  ships 
as  soon  as  they  should  have  dropped  anchor. 
This,  of  course,  was  a  breach  of  good  faith. 
So  back  they  went  to  their  first  landing-place. 
They  landed,  filled  all  their  water-tanks,  took 
the  corn  stored  in  a  small  storehouse,  killed  sev- 
eral Portuguese,  caught  a  large  number  of 
turtles  for  the  sick  people  on  board,  and  hoisted 
sail  to  cross  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

And  then  the  bad  luck  which  was  to  follow 
this  expedition  began.  The  admiral  of  the 
fleet,  Jacques  Mahu,  died  suddenly  of  a  fever 

211 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

and  was  buried  at  sea.  Two  weeks  later  so 
many  men  were  desperately  ill  with  the  same 
fever  that  the  ships  were  obliged  to  return  upon 
their  own  track  and  establish  a  hospital  upon 
one  of  the  islands  off  the  coast  of  Guinea.  All 
this  time  the  wind  blew  from  the  wrong  direc- 
tion. When  at  last  they  saw  land,  they  found 
that  they  were  near  the  coast  of  Lower  Guinea. 
They  sent  a  boat  to  the  shore  to  discover  some 
native  tribe  which  owned  cattle.  But  the  na- 
tives, who  feared  all  white  men  as  possible 
slave-dealers,  ran  into  the  bushes  and  carefully 
took  their  possessions  with  them.  Fortunately, 
after  a  few  days  another  Dutch  ship  appeared 
upon  the  horizon,  and  the  first  mate  of  this  ves- 
sel, a  Frenchman  by  birth,  knew  the  language 
of  the  negroes.  Through  him  a  message  was 
sent  to  the  king  of  a  small  tribe,  and  when  it 
had  been  proved  that  the  Hollanders  were  not 
slave-dealers,  but  honest  merchants  on  their 
way  to  the  Indies  and  willing  to  pay  money  for 
whatever  they  bought,  their  newly  elected  com- 
mander, Sebalt  de  Weert  was  received  in  state 
and  invited  to  dine  with  his  Majesty. 

212 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

This  dinner,  much  to  the  regret  of  the  hun- 
gry guests,  was  a  poor  affair.  The  negro  chief- 
tain tried  to  be  very  civil  to  his  guests.  In 
their  honor  he   had   powdered   himself   white 


with  the  ashes  of  a  wood  fire,  but  the  food  was 
neither  abundant  nor  very  good.  The  Hol- 
landers decided  to  invite  his  Majesty  to  one  of 
their  own  dinners  as  a  good  example  and  a  hint. 
From  among  the  few  supplies  which  were  left 
on  board  they  arranged  so  excellent  a  dinner 
that  his  royal  Highness  ate  everything  on  the 
table  and  then  fell  fast  asleep  in  his  chair.  But 
when  the  next  day  the  Hollanders  tried  to  buy 

213 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

the  fresh  provisions  which  they  expected  to  get, 
they  found  that  the  domains  of  the  king  pro- 
duced nothing  but  one  single  goat,  a  lean  goat 
at  that,  and  four  puny  chickens. 

The  coast  of  Guinea,  sometimes  called  the 
"dry  Gallows,"  gets  its  agreeable  reputation 
from  the  fact  that  the  malarial  fevers  of  this 
swampy  region  usually  kill  all  the  white  people 
who  venture  to  settle  there.  The  new  com- 
mander of  the  expedition  caught  this  malaria, 
and  was  sick  in  his  bed  for  over  two  months. 
Sixteen  of  his  sailors  died,  and  finally  the  expe- 
dition was  obliged  to  flee  to  the  healthy  islands, 
which  of  course  belonged  to  the  Portuguese. 
Early  in  December  they  sailed  toward  Anna- 
bon.  Once  again  the  Portuguese  refused  them 
both  water  and  food.  A  troop  of  men  were 
landed  to  take  by  force  what  they  could  not 
obtain  through  an  appeal  to  Christian  charity. 
The  Portuguese  did  not  await  this  attack,  but 
surrendered  their  fortress  and  fled  toward  the 
mountains.  From  there  they  arranged  sniping 
expeditions  which  killed  many  Hollanders. 
As   a  punishment.  Admiral   de  Weert  burned 

214 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

the  white  settlement  and  the  church.  He  took 
all  the  provisions  which  were  stored  in  the  little 
town,  and  on  the  second  of  January  of  the  year 
1599  he  tried  once  more  to  cross  the  Atlantic 
Ocean. 

This  time  the  wind  was  favorable.  Soon  the 
ships  had  passed  out  of  the  hot  equatorial  re- 
gions. The  sailors  who  had  suffered  from 
scurvy  and  malaria  began  to  feel  better  in  the 
colder  climate  of  the  Argentinian  coast.  They 
recovered  so  fast  and  they  had  such  a  great  ap- 
petite after  their  long-enforced  fast  that  many 
of  them  threatened  to  die  from  over-feeding. 
And  one  poor  fellow  who  was  so  hungry  that 
he  stole  bread  at  night  from  the  ship's  pantry 
was  publicly  hanged  to  stop  further  theft  of  the 
meager  supplies,  ^hen  the  ships  were  near 
the  coast  of  South  America  things  went  wrong 
once  more.  First  of  all  the  sailors  were  fright- 
ened by  the  sudden  appearance  of  what  they 
supposed  to  be  blood  upon  the  surface  of  the 
ocean.  As  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  the  water 
was  of  a  dark-red  color.  This  phenomenon, 
however,  proved  to  be  caused  by  billions  of  lit- 

215 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

tie  plants.  They  made  the  water  look  quite 
horrible,  but  they  were  entirely  harmless.  A 
few  days  later  one  of  the  men,  an  Englishman, 
while  at  dinner  suddenly  uttered  a  dreadful 
scream  and  fell  backward,  dead.  The  next  day 
another  one  of  the  sailors  suddenly  became  in- 
sane and  tried  to  scratch  and  bite  everybody 
who  came  near  him.  After  three  days  his  con- 
dition improved  somewhat,  but  he  never  recov- 
ered his  reason.  When  he  was  put  to  bed  at 
night  he  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  covered 
up.  One  very  cold  night  both  his  feet  were 
frozen  and  had  to  be  amputated.  That  was  the 
end  of  the  poor  fellow.  He  did  not  survive  the 
operation. 

It  was  a  sad  expedition  which  at  last  reached 
the  Strait  of  Magellan  on  the  sixth  of  April  of 
the  year  1599.  Happily  the  weather  near  the 
strait  was  fine.  There  was  plenty  of  fresh 
water  on  the  shore.  The  men  killed  hundreds 
of  birds,  caught  geese  and  ducks,  and  found  a 
large  supply  of  oysters.  But  when  finally  the 
day  came  on  which  they  tried  to  enter  the  strait, 
the  wind  suddenly  veered  around,  and  during 

216 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

four  months  the  ships  were  forced  to  stay  in 
their  little  harbor.  They  had  enough  to  eat 
and  they  had  found  wood  to  keep  warm,  but 
much  valuable  time  was  lost,  and  when  the 
winter  at  last  came  upon  them  with  sudden  vio- 
lence they  were  entirely  unprepared  for  it. 
The  reports  of  the  expeditions  of  Magellan  and 
Drake  and  Cavendish  had  shown  that  an  expe- 
dition around  the  world  was  apt  to  suffer  from 
too  much  heat,  but  rarely  from  too  much  cold. 
Except  for  the  few  miles  of  the  Strait  of  Ma- 
gellan, the  ships  sailed  in  tropical  or  semi- 
tropical  regions  all  the  time.  Therefore  the 
Dutch  ships  had  not  brought  any  heavy  clothes 
or  furs,  which  would  have  taken  up  a  lot  of 
room,  and  the  food  which  had  been  put  up  for 
them  in  Holland  had  been  prepared  with  the 
idea  of  supporting  men  who  did  their  work 
under  a  blazing  sun.  When  they  were  obliged 
to  live  for  a  long  time  in  a  raw,  cold  climate 
and  work  hard,  hunting  and  fishing  and  gath- 
ering wood  amid  snow  and  icy  winds,  the 
sailors  did  not  get  sufficient  nourishment.  From 
sheer  misery   and   exposure  one   hundred   and 

217 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 


twenty  men  died  within  less  than  four  months. 
Among  them  was  the  captain  of  the  Trouwe. 


^    J  J-  ^  f  jr   J  .s  J  ^ 


He  was  the  second  officer  to  perish  before  his 
ship  had  reached  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

But  illness  was  not  the  only  enemy  of  this  ex- 
pedition. The  natives  of  the  south  coast  joined 
the  terrible  climate  in  its  attack  upon  the  Hol- 
landers. They  murdered  Dutch  sailors  when 
these  had  gone  on  shore  to  look  for  fire-wood 
or  to  examine  their  traps.  They  killed  several 
men  and  they  wounded  more.     Being  wounded 

218 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

was  almost  as  bad  as  being  killed  outright,  for 
the  spears  of  the  natives  were  made  with  nasty 
barbs  which  caused  very  bad  wounds.  When 
they  once  had  penetrated  into  a  man's  arm  or 
hand,  the  only  way  to  get  them  out  successfully 
was  by  pushing  them  through  until  they  came 
out  again  at  the  other  side,  or  cut  away  all  the 
flesh,  in  both  cases  a  very  painful  operation. 

At  last,  on  the  twentieth  of  August,  the  wind 
turned,  and  the  ships  were  able  to  enter  the 
strait.  The  joy  of  the  men  did  not  last  very 
long.  The  next  day  there  was  no  wind  at  all, 
and  once  more  the  fleet  anchored.  To  keep  his 
few  remaining  men  busy,  the  commander  ar- 
ranged an  expedition  on  shore.  It  was  the  first 
time  that  a  Dutch  fleet  had  been  in  this  part  of 
the  world,  and  the  event  must  be  properly  cele- 
brated. A  high  pole  was  planted  in  a  conspic- 
uous spot  on  shore,  and  the  adventures  of  the 
expedition  and  the  names  of  the  leaders  were 
carved  on  the  pole.  Near  this  pole  a  small 
cemetery  was  made  where  two  sailors  who  had 
died  the  night  before  were  buried.  In  the  eve- 
ning all  went  back  to  their  ships.     When  they 

219 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

returned  the  next  morning,  they  found  that  the 
natives  had  hacked  the  monument  to  pieces  and 
the  corpses  of  the  dead  Hollanders  had  been 
dug  out  of  the  earth  and  had  been  cut  into  little 
bits  and  were  spread  all  over  the  shore.  This 
humiliating  experience  was  the  last  one  which 
they  suffered  in  the  strait.  The  wind  at  last 
turned  to  their  advantage  and  on  the  third  of 
September  the  ships  reached  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
The  good  weather  lasted  just  seven  days.  A 
week  later,  in  the  night  of  the  tenth  of  Septem- 
ber, a  severe  storm  attacked  the  little  fleet,  and 
the  next  morning  the  ships  had  lost  sight  of  one 
another.  They  came  together  after  a  short 
search,  but  during  the  next  night  there  was  an- 
other gale,  and  in  the  morning  three  of  the  five 
ships  had  disappeared.  Only  the  Trouwe  and 
the  Geloof  were  apparently  saved.  During 
three  weeks  these  two  ships  floated  aimlessly 
about,  driven  hither  and  thither  upon  the  angry 
waves  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  They  had  few 
supplies  left,  and  they  could  not  repair  the 
damage  that  was  done  to  their  masts  because 
both  ships  had  sent  their  carpenters  to  one  of 

220 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

the  other  vessels  which  had  been  in  need  of  a 
general  overhauling  and  which  was  now  lost. 
A  month  went  by,  and  then  they  discovered  that 
they  had  been  driven  back  into  the  strait.  The 
admiral  discussed  the  situation  with  his  chief 
officers.  Did  they  advise  going  back  to  Hol- 
land without  having  accomplished  anything,  or 
would  they  keep  on?  The  sailors  all  wanted  to 
return  to  Holland.  They  did  not  have  any 
faith  left  in  the  results  of  this  unhappy  voyage. 
Many  of  them  were  ill.  Others  pretended  that 
they  were  too  weak  to  work.  Others  mur- 
mured about  a  lack  of  provisions.  There  was 
ground  for  this  talk.  The  supply-room  was 
getting  emptier  and  emptier  in  a  very  mysteri- 
ous way.  At  last  the  admiral  decided  to  in- 
vestigate this  strange  case.  He  discovered  that 
an  unknown  member  of  the  crew  possessed  a 
key  to  the  bread-boxes  and  stufifed  himself 
every  night  while  his  comrades  were  kept  on 
short  rations.  It  was  a  gross  breach  of  disci- 
pline. Apparently  the  expedition  was  going 
from  bad  to  worse.  On  the  afternoon  of  the 
tenth  of  December  Admiral  de  Weert  paid  a 

221 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

call  to  the  Trowwe  to  talk  over  the  situation. 
The  next  morning  the  Trowwe  had  disappeared. 
De  Weert  never  saw  her  again.     He  was  all 


alone,  and  his  safe  return  depended  upon  his 
own  unaided  efforts.  His  first  duty  was  to  get 
enough  food.  On  a  certain  Sunday  afternoon 
the  few  men  of  his  ship  who  could  still  walk 
were  on  shore  looking  for  things  to  eat  when 
they  had  an  encounter  with  a  large  number  of 
natives  who  had  just  arrived  in  three  canoes. 
The  natives  fled,  and  hid  themselves  among  the 
cliffs.  One  woman  and  two  small  babies  could 
not  get  away  and  were  brought  back  to  the 
ship.  The  woman  was  kept  a  prisoner  for 
forty-eight  hours  while  the  Hollanders  studied 

222 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

the  habits  and  customs  of  the  wild  people  of 
Tierra  del  Fuego.  The  subject  of  their  study 
refused  to  eat  cooked  food,  but  dead  birds 
which  were  thrown  to  her  she  ate  as  if  she  had 
been  a  wild  animal.  The  children  did  the 
same  thing,  tearing  at  the  feathers  with  their 
sharp  teeth.  After  two  days  the  mother  and 
one  of  the  children  were  sent  back  to  the  shore 
with  a  number  of  presents.  The  other  child 
was  kept  on  board  and  was  taken  back  to  Hol- 
land, where  it  died  immediately  after  arrival. 
On  the  sixteenth  of  December  a  last  attempt 


was  made  to  find  the  Trouive.  A  blank  car- 
tridge was  fired,  and  a  few  minutes  later  a  dis- 
tant answer  was  heard.     Soon  a  ship  came  sail- 

223 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

ing  around  a  nearby  cape.  It  was  not  the 
Trouwe,  but  the  ship  of  Oliver  van  Noort,  who 
at  the  head  of  his  expedition  had  just  entered 
upon  the  last  stretch  of  his  voyage  through  the 
strait.  Van  Noort  had  a  story  to  tell  of  a  fairly 
successful  voyage,  plenty  to  eat,  and  little  ill- 
ness. The  hungry  men  of  De  Weert  looked 
with  envy  at  the  happy  faces  of  Van  Noort's 
sailors.  The  latter  had  just  caught  several 
thousand  penguins  on  a  little  island  not  far 
away.  The  starving  crew  of  the  Geloof  asked 
that  they  be  allowed  to  sail  to  this  island  and 
catch  whatever  Van  Noort  had  left  alive.  De 
Weert,  however,  refused  this  request.  Here 
was  his  last  chance  to  get  to  the  Indies  in  the 
company  of  the  squadron  of  Van  Noort,  and  he 
meant  to  take  it.  The  next  morning  he  joined 
the  new  ships  on  their  westward  course.  But 
his  sailors,  weak  and  miserable  after  more  than 
a  year  of  illness,  could  not  obey  their  captain's 
commands  as  fast  as  those  who  were  on  the 
other  ships.  Soon  the  Geloof  was  left  behind. 
The  next  morning,  when  Van  Noort  entered  the 
Pacific,  De  Weert  was  helplessly  blown  back 

224 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

into  the  strait.  It  seemed  impossible  to  do 
more  than  he  had  tried  to  accomplish  against 
such  great  odds.  He  called  all  his  remaining 
sailors  together  to  hear  what  they  wanted  him 
to  do.  They  all  had  just  one  wish,  to  get  home 
as  fast  as  possible  by  way  of  Brazil  and  Africa. 
The  Pacific,  so  they  argued,  offered  nothing  but 
disappointment.  De  Weert  promised  to  give 
his  final  decision  on  the  next  day,  which  was 
the  first  of  January  of  the  year  1600.  When 
the  morning  came,  he  found  himself  once  more 
in  the  company  of  other  ships.  Van  Noort  had 
reached  the  Pacific,  but  the  Western  storms  had 
been  too  much  for  his  strong  ships.  For  the 
second  time  the  Hollanders  were  all  united  in 
a  cold  little  harbor  inside  the  Strait  of  Ma- 
gellan. 

Van  Noort  now  paid  a  personal  visit  to  De 
Weert  and  asked  what  he  could  do  to  help  him. 
De  Weert  was  much  obliged  for  this  offer,  and 
asked  for  bread  enough  to  last  him  another  four 
months.  Unfortunately  Van  Noort  could  not 
do  this.  He  had  still  a  very  long  voyage  before 
him,  and  did  not  dare  to  deprive  his  own  men 

225 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

of  their  supplies.  He  advised  De  Weert  to  go 
to  the  island  of  the  penguins  and  to  fill  his  store- 
room with  the  dried  meat  of  these  birds. 
Meanwhile,  much  to  his  regret,  he  must  leave 


De  Weert  as  soon  as  possible,  for  he  was  in  a 
hurry. 

The  next  day  they  said  farewell  to  one  an- 
other for  the  last  time.  De  Weert  took  the 
precautions  to  leave  instructions  for  the  captain 
of  the  lost  Trouwe.  He  wrote  a  letter  which 
was  placed  inside  a  bottle,  and  this  bottle  was 
buried  at  the  foot  of  a  high  tree.  On  the  tree 
itself  a  board  was  hammered,  and  on  this  board 

22^ 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

a  message  was  painted  telling  in  Dutch  where 
to  look  for  an  important  document  at  the  foot 
of  the  tree.  Then  the  ship  sailed  to  the  pen- 
guin island,  and  the  thirty  men  who  could  do 
any  work  at  all  hunted  the  fat  and  lazy  birds 
until  they  had  killed  several  thousand.  It  was 
easy  work.  The  penguins  obligingly  waited  on 
their  nests  until  they  were  killed.  But  the  trip 
to  the  island  almost  destroyed  the  entire  expe- 
dition. There  was  only  one  boat  left,  and  in 
this  boat  the  men  who  were  not  sick  had  rowed 
to  the  shore.  They  had  been  careless  in  fasten- 
ing her,  and  a  sudden  squall  caught  her  and 
threw  her  on  the  rocks.  She  was  badly  damaged 
and  could  not  be  used  without  being  repaired, 
but  the  men  on  shore  had  no  tools  with  which 
to  do  any  repairing,  while  those  on  the  ship 
were  so  ill  that  they  could  not  swim  to  the  shore 
with  the  necessary  hammers  and  saws.  Two 
entire  days  were  used  to  get  that  boat  into  order 
with  the  help  of  one  ax  and  some  pocket-knives, 
and  during  those  two  days  the  men  lived  out  in 
the  open  on  the  cold  shore  and  lived  on  raw 
penguin  meat. 

227 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

The  island,  among  other  things,  contained 
material  evidences  of  Van  Noort's  presence.  A 
dead  native,  w^ith  his  hands  tied  behind  his 
back,  w^as  found  stretched  out  upon  the  sand. 
In  a  little  hollow  in  the  rocks  they  discovered 
a  w^oman  who  had  been  wounded  by  a  gunshot. 
They  took  good  care  of  the  woman,  bandaged 
her  wounds,  and  gave  her  a  pocket-knife.  To 
show  her  gratitude,  she  told  De  Weert  of 
another  island  where  there  were  even  more  pen- 
guins. The  next  week  was  spent  on  this  island, 
and  now  the  men  had  plenty  of  food.  But  the 
ship  was  without  a  single  anchor  and  had  only 
one  leaking  lifeboat.  With  the  certainty  that  he 
could  not  land  anywhere  unless  boats  were  sent 
for  him  from  shore  De  Weert  decided  to  return 
to  the  coast  of  Guinea  and  try  to  reach  home. 
On  the  eighteenth  of  January  the  Geloof  went 
back  upon  her  track.  Two  months  later  the 
vessel  reached  the  coast  of  Guinea.  This  trip 
back  was  not  very  eventful  except  for  one  small 
incident.  One  of  the  sailors  who  was  a  drunk- 
ard had  broken  into  the  storeroom  and  had  stolen 
a  lot  of  rice  and  several  bottles  of  wine.    Theft 

228 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

was  one  of  the  things  which  was  punished  most 
severely.  Therefore,  the  man  had  been  con- 
demned to  death  and  was  to  be  hanged.  But 
while  he  was  sitting  in  the  rigging  and  waiting 
for  somebody  to  push  him  into  eternity  the  other 
members  of  the  crew  felt  sorry  for  him  and  asked 
their  captain  to  spare  his  life.  At  first  he  re- 
fused, but  finally  he  agreed  to  show  clemency  if 
the  men  would  never  bother  him  again  with  a 
similar  request.  The  prisoner  was  allowed  to 
come  down  from  his  high  perch,  and  to  show  his 
gratitude  he  broke  again  into  the  storeroom  that 
same  night.  He  was  a  very  bad  example.  As 
such  he  was  hanged  from  the  yardarm  of  the 
highest  mast,  and  his  body  was  dropped  into  the 
sea. 

The  crew,  however,  were  so  thoroughly  de- 
moralized by  this  time  that  even  such  drastic 
measures  did  no  good.  They  continued  to  pil- 
lage the  storeroom,  and  when  at  last  four  of 
them  had  been  detected  and  had  been  found 
guilty,  their  comrades  were  so  weak  that  no- 
body could  be  found  to  hang  the  prisoners 
properly  and  they  had  to  be  taken  home. 

229 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

In  July  of  the  year  1600  the  Geloof  reached 
the  English  Channel,  and  on  the  thirteenth  of 
that  month  she  entered  the  mouth  of  the  Maas. 
There,  within  sight  of  home,  one  more  sailor 
died.  He  was  number  sixty-nine.  Only  thirty- 
six  men  came  back  to  Rotterdam.     They  were  ill 


and  had  a  story  to  tell  of  constant  hardships  and 
of  terrible  disappointments.  The  great  expedi- 
tion of  the  two  courageous  merchants  and  all 
their  investments  were  a  complete  loss.  None 
of  the  other  ships  ever  came  back  to  Holland. 
But  year  after  year  stragglers  from  the  other 
four  ships  reached  home  and  told  of  the  fate  of 

230 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

the  other  three  hundred  sailors  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  unfortunate  voyage.  Some  of  these 
reports  have  come  down  to  us,  and  we  are  able 
to  give  a  short  account  of  the  adventures  of  each 
ship  after  that  day  early  in  the  year  1600  when 
the  Pacific  storms  had  separated  them  from  one 
another. 

First  of  all  there  was  the  Trouwe,  which  had 
remained  faithful  to  De  Weert  after  the  other 
three  vessels  had  disappeared.  The  wind  had 
blown  the  Trouive  out  of  the  strait  into  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  For  many  weeks  her  captain 
had  lost  all  track  of  his  whereabouts.  Through 
sheer  luck  he  had  at  last  reached  a  coast  which 
he  supposed  to  be  the  continent  of  South  Amer- 
ica and  after  a  search  of  a  few  days  he  had  found 
some  natives  who  were  friendly.  The  natives 
told  the  Hollanders  that  this  was  not  the  Ameri- 
can continent,  but  an  island  called  Chiloe,  sit- 
uated a  few  miles  off  the  Chilean  coast.  The 
Dutch  ships  had  been  made  welcome.  They 
were  invited  to  stay  in  the  harbor  as  long  as  they 
wished.  Meanwhile  the  natives  told  their  cap- 
tain about  a  plan  of  their  own  which  undoubt- 

231 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

edly  would  please  him.  It  seemed  that  the  in- 
habitants of  Chiloe  had  good  reason  to  hate  the 
Spaniards,  who  were  mighty  on  the  near-by  con- 
tinent and  who  recently  had  built  a  strong  fort 
on  the  island,  from  which  they  exercised  their 
tyrannical  rule  over  all  the  natives  and  made 
them  pay  very  heavy  tribute.  Perhaps,  so  the 
natives  argued,  the  Hollanders  could  be  induced 
to  give  their  assistance  in  a  campaign  against 
the  Spaniard.  De  Cordes,  who  commanded  the 
Trouwe,  was  a  Catholic,  but  he  was  quite  ready 
to  offer  his  services  in  so  good  a  cause  and  was 
delighted  to  start  a  little  private  war  of  his  own 
upon  the  Spaniards.  He  made  ready  to  sail  for 
that  part  of  the  coast  where,  according  to  his 
informants,  the  Spaniard  had  fortified  himself. 
Meanwhile  the  natives  were  to  proceed  on  shore 
toward  the  same  Spanish  fortress.  An  attack 
was  to  follow  simultaneously  from  the  land  and 
the  sea.  On  the  way  to  the  fortress  all  Span- 
ish houses  and  plantations,  storerooms  and 
churches,  were  burned  down  and  at  last  the  for- 
tress itself  was  reached.  The  commander  of  the 
fortress,  however,  had  heard  of  the  approach  of 

232 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

this  handful  of  Hollanders,  and  he  sent  them 
an  insulting  message  telling  them  that  he  needed 
a  new  stable  boy,  anyway,  and  would  bestow 
this  high  office  upon  the  Dutch  captain  as  soon 
as  he  could  have  the  necessary  arrangements 
made.  But  when  the  Dutch  captain  actually 
appeared  upon  the  scene  with  a  well-armed  ves- 
sel and  a  band  of  native  auxiliaries  and  informed 
the  Spaniard  that  the  new  stable  boy  had  come 
to  take  possession  of  his  domain,  the  commander 
changed  his  mind  and  offered  the  Hollanders 
whatever  they  wished  if  they  would  only  leave 
him  alone.  De  Cordes,  however,  attacked  the 
fort  at  once.  He  took  it,  and  the  garrison  was 
locked  up  in  the  church  as  prisoners.  Then  the 
^^hilean  natives  in  their  rage  attacked  the  church 
and  killed  several  of  the  Spaniards.  This  was 
not  what  De  Cordes  wanted  to  be  done.  He 
did  not  mind  if  a  Hollander  killed  a  Spaniard, 
but  it  did  not  look  well  for  one  white  man  to 
allow  a  native  to  kill  another  while  he  himself 
stood  by.  Therefore  he  returned  their  arms  to 
the  Spaniards  and  together  they  then  drove  the 
natives  away.     When  the  natives,  however,  told 

233 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

the  Dutch  sailors  that  the  fort  contained  hidden 
treasures  of  which  the  Spaniards  had  made  no 
mention,  the  former  allies  attacked  each  other 
for  the  second  time,  and  the  Spanish  prisoners 
were  sent  on  board  the  Dutch  ship.  The  story 
which  we  possess  of  this  episode  of  the  voyage  is 
not  very  clear.  It  was  written  many  years  later 
by  one  of  the  few  sailors  who  came  back  to  Hol- 
land. His  account  of  these  adventures  was  so 
badly  printed  and  the  spelling  of  the  original 
pamphlet  was  so  extraordinary  that  a  second 
scribe  was  later  hired  to  turn  the  booklet  into 
more  or  less  readable  Dutch.  The  present 
translation  has  been  made  from  this  second  ver- 
sion. Everything  is  a  bit  mixed,  and  it  is  not 
easy  to  find  out  what  really  happened.  A  com- 
mon and  ignorant  sailor  of  the  year  1600  was  not 
very  different  from  the  same  sort  of  fellow  who 
at  present  is  fighting  in  the  European  war. 
They  both  remember  events  in  chunks,  so  to 
speak.  They  have  very  vivid  impressions  of  a 
few  occurrences,  but  they  have  forgotten  other 
things  of  more  importance  because  at  the  time 
these  did  not  strike  their  unobservant  brain  as 

234 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

being  of  any  special  interest.  But  we  have  no 
other  account  of  the  adventures  of  the  Trouwe. 
We  must  use  this  information  such  as  it  is. 


The  booty  found  in  this  small  settlement 
had  not  been  of  great  value.  The  expedition 
felt  inclined  to  move  toward  a  richer  port. 
They  did  not  have  food  enough  for  their  prison- 
ers, and  fourteen  of  the  nineteen  Spaniards  who 
were  locked  up  in  the  hold  were  thrown  over- 
board. This  sounds  very  cruel,  but  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  time  that  these  two  nations  rarely 

235 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

gave  each  other  quarter.  Whosoever  was  made 
a  prisoner  was  killed.  The  Spaniards  started 
this  practice  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury because  the  Hollanders  as  heretics  deserved 
no  better  fate.  The  Hollanders  reciprocated. 
On  this  distant  island  of  the  Pacific  both  parties 
obeyed  the  unwritten  law.  The  Hollanders 
drowned  their  prisoners.  When  Spanish  rein- 
forcements reached  Chiloe  and  retook  the  fort, 
they  killed  the  Dutch  garrison,  for  such  was  the 
custom  of  the  time. 

The  Trouwe  after  this  famous  exploit  was  in 
a  difficult  position,  all  alone  in  the  heart  of  the 
Pacific,  with  enemies  on  every  side  and  a  bad 
conscience.  The  idea  of  attacking  some  other 
Spanish  harbor  in  Chile  and  Peru  was  given  up 
as  too  dangerous.  Near  the  harbor  of  Truxillo 
a  Spanish  ship  loaded  with  grain  and  wine  was 
captured,  and  provided  with  new  supplies,  De 
Cordes  decided  to  risk  the  trip  across  the  Pacific. 
On  the  third  of  January,  1601,  he  reached  Ter- 
nate  in  the  Indies,  where  Van  Noort  had  been 
the  year  before,  and  where  they  found  a  Dutch 
settlement  commanded  by  that  same  Van  der 

236 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

Does  whose  account  of  Houtman's  first  trip  to 
India  we  have  given  in  the  fourth  chapter  of 
this  little  book.  Van  der  Does  warned  De 
Cordes  not  to  visit  the  next  island  of  Tidore. 
There  were  only  twenty-four  Hollanders  left  on 
board  the  Trouwe.  It  was  too  dangerous  to 
visit  an  unfriendly  Portuguese  colony  with  a 
damaged  ship  and  so  small  a  crew.  But  De 
Cordes,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  reckless  sort 
of  person,  went  to  Tidore  all  the  same.  Much 
to  his  surprise  he  was  very  cordially  received 
by  the  commander  of  the  Portuguese  garrison 
and  the  governor  of  the  town.  They  both  as- 
sured him  that  he  might  trade  in  their  col- 
ony as  much  as  he  wished.  If,  however,  he 
would  let  them  know  what  he  wished  to  buy, 
they  would  give  orders  that  provisions  and  a 
cargo  of  spice  should  be  got  ready  for  their  dis- 
tinguished visitors.  They  invited  him  to  come 
on  shore  the  next  morning.  They  wanted  to 
make  him  a  present  of  an  ox  for  the  benefit  of 
his  hungry  crew  and  entertain  him  personally, 
and,  then  after  a  few  more  days  further  arrange- 
ments for  the  purpose  of  a  mutually  profitable 

237 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

trade  might  be  made.  The  next  morning  the 
Dutch  captain  and  six  men  went  ashore  to  get 
their  ox.  The  ship  itself  was  left  in  the  care  of 
the  first  mate.  Soon  a  Portuguese  boat  rowed 
out  to  the  Trouwe  and  asked  the  mate  to  come 
on  shore,  too,  and  have  breakfast  with  his  Portu- 
guese colleagues.  The  mate  was  suspicious  and 
refused  the  invitation.  He  suggested  that  the 
Portuguese  officer  come  on  board  the  Trouwe 
and  breakfast  with  him.  But  the  officer  said 
that  he  was  too  heavy  a  man  to  climb  on  board 
so  high  a  ship,  and  he  did  not  care  to  take  this 
exercise  so  early  in  the  morning.  So  the  mate 
left  the  ship,  together  with  the  ship's  carpenter, 
to  see  what  a  Portuguese  kitchen  served  for 
breakfast.  The  moment  the  two  men  landed  a 
loud  outcry  was  heard  from  the  Trouwe.  The 
mate  at  once  jumped  into  the  sea  and  looked  for 
his  comrade.  The  carpenter  was  dead  and  his 
head,  hacked  from  his  body,  was  used  as  a  foot- 
ball by  the  Portuguese.  The  mate  swam  out  to 
the  ship,  but  when  he  reached  it  he  found  that 
the  Portuguese  had  jumped  on  board  the  mo- 

238 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

ment  he  had  left  for  his  breakfast  party.  He 
swam  back  to  the  shore,  was  made  a  prisoner, 
and  was  locked  up  in  the  fortress.  With  six 
other  men  he  escaped  the  general  murder  which 
had  taken  place  as  soon  as  he  landed.  De  Cor- 
des  himself  had  been  killed  with  a  dagger.  The 
six  men  who  had  accompanied  him  on  shore  had 
heard  the  noise  of  the  attack  upon  the  Trouwe 
and  had  rowed  away  from  shore  in  a  boat,  try- 
ing to  get  back  to  their  vessel.  But  the  Trouwe 
was  already  in  the  hands  of  the  Portuguese,  and 
since  the  Hollanders  had  no  arms,  they  sur- 
rendered after  the  Portuguese  had  given  their 
oath  not  to  hurt  them  and  to  spare  their  lives. 
They  were  taken  on  board  a  Portuguese  ship. 
As  soon  as  they  were  on  deck  they  had  been 
placed  in  a  row,  and  a  soldier  had  been  ordered 
to  take  his  sword  and  hack  their  heads  off.  He 
had  killed  four  men  when  the  other  two  man- 
aged to  jump  overboard.  One  of  these  was 
drowned.  The  other  was  fished  out  of  the  water 
and  was  sent  to  the  fortress  with  the  mate  and 
five  sailors  who  had  put  up  such  a  desperate 

239 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

fight  on  board  the  Trouwe  that  the  Portuguese 
had  promised  to  treat  them  with  clemency  if 
only  they  would  surrender. 

The  six  men  were  afterward  taken  to  Goa. 
Gradually  one  after  the  other  they  had  managed 
to  escape  and  find  their  way  back  to  Holland. 
Two  of  them  returned  to  Rotterdam  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1603.  Another  one  we  find  mentioned 
in  later  years  as  commander  of  an  Indian  trader. 
As  for  the  Trouwe,  Van  Neck  on  his  second 
voyage  to  India  found  the  vessel  being  used  by 
the  Portuguese  as  a  man-of-war. 

Of  the  other  ships,  the  Blyde  Boodschap  also 
had  a  very  sad  career  and  met  with  extraordinary 
adventures.  This  small  vessel  was  commanded 
by  a  certain  Dirck  Gerritsz,  a  native  of  Enk- 
huizen,  a  fellow-citizen  of  Linschoten.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  two  men  had  heard  of  each 
other  many  years  before.  While  Linschoten 
was  in  Goa  he  was  told  of  a  Hollander  who  was 
a  native  of  his  own  city  and  who  had  traveled  not 
only  in  the  Indies,  but  who  also  had  visited 
Japan  and  China.  We  know  very  little  of  the 
man.     Some  information  of  his  travels  in  Asia 

240 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

have  been  printed  in  a  general  hand-book  on 
navigation  of  that  time,  though  he  did  not  follow 
Linschoten's  example  and  print  a  full  account 
of  his  adventures.  When  the  city  of  Rotterdam 
sent  this  expedition  to  the  Strait  of  Magellan, 
Dirck  Gerritsz  had  been  engaged  as  first  mate 
of  the  Blyde  Boodschap.  When  her  captain 
died  he  had  succeeded  him.  The  ship  of  Ger- 
ritsz had  suffered  from  the  same  storm  which 
had  driven  the  Trouwe  out  of  her  course.  An 
attempt  had  been  made  to  reach  the  island  of 
Santa  Maria,  but  the  maps  on  board  proved  to 
be  faulty,  and  the  little  island  could  not  be 
found.  With  only  provisions  enough  for 
another  week  Gerritsz  had  finally  reached  the 
harbor  of  Valparaiso.  Of  his  original  crew  of 
fifty-six  men,  twenty-three  were  left,  and  of 
these  only  nine  were  strong  enough  to  sail  the 
ship.  Therefore  he  had  been  forced  to  sur- 
render himself  and  his  vessel  to  the  Spaniards. 
The  Dutch  sailors  were  forced  to  take  service 
in  the  Spanish  navy.  From  that  moment  on  we 
lose  sight  of  all  of  them.  A  few  reached  home 
after  many  years  of  strange  adventure.     Others 

241 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

died  in  the  Spanish  service.  Of  the  fate  of  the 
ship  we  know  nothing.  As  for  Dirck  Gerritsz, 
rumor  has  it  that  he  found  his  way  back  to 
Enkhuizen. 

There  were  two  other  ships,  the  Hoop  and  the 
Liefde,  Of  these  the  Liefde  had  reached  Santa 
Maria,  and  after  leaving  the  island  had  landed 
at  Punta  Lapavia,  where  an  attempt  had  been 
made  to  find  fresh  water.  Unfortunately,  the 
captain  and  twenty-three  of  his  men  had  been 
murdered  by  natives  who  mistook  them  for 
Spaniards  and  had  carried  their  heads  in 
triumph  to  the  Spanish  town  of  Concepcion, 
where  they  were  shown  to  the  garrison  as  a 
promise  of  what  was  in  store  for  them  should  the 
settlement  ever  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  en- 
raged native  population.  The  rest  of  the  sailors 
had  saved  their  ship  by  fleeing  to  Santa  Maria, 
where  they  met  the  Hoop.  The  Hoop  had  suf- 
fered a  similar  calamity.  Her  captain  and 
twenty-seven  of  his  men  had  been  murdered  on 
another  island.  Of  the  officers  of  both  ships 
hardly  a  single  one  was  still  alive. 

New  officers  were  elected  from  among  the 

242 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

men,  and  the  ships  continued  their  northward 
course  apparently  without  a  definite  idea  of  what 
they  intended  to  do.  They  could  not  go  back 
through  the  strait,  and  they  were  obliged  to 
cross  the  Pacific.  They  decided  to  avoid  all 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  settlements  and  to  make 
for  Japan,  where  they  might  be  able  to  sell  their 
cargo,  and  where  a  peaceful  couple  of  ships 
might  find  it  possible  to  do  some  honest  trading 
without  being  attacked  by  wild  natives  or  lying 
Spaniards.  On  the  twenty-seventh  of  Novem- 
ber the  island  of  Santa  Maria  was  left,  and  soon 
the  ships  passed  the  equator.  They  kept  near 
the  land,  and  lost  eight  more  of  their  men  when 
these  had  gone  to  the  shore  to  get  fresh  water 
and  were  attacked  by  natives.  On  the  twenty- 
third  of  February,  during  a  gale,  the  ships  were 
separated  from  each  other.  The  Liefde  was 
obliged  to  make  the  voyage  to  Japan  alone.  On 
the  twenty- fourth  of  March  of  the  year  1600  the 
first  Japanese  island  was  reached. 

The  people  of  Japan  were  very  kind-hearted 
and  very  obliging.  The  sick  Hollanders  were 
allowed  to  come  on  shore,  and  the  others  could 

243 


\ 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

trade  as  much  as  they  liked.  But  Japan  for 
many  years  had  been  a  field  of  successful  activi- 
ties for  Portuguese  Jesuits.  These  Jesuits 
smiled  pleasantly  upon  the  Dutch  visitors,  but 
to  the  Japanese  they  hinted  that  the  Hollanders 
were  pirates  and  could  not  be  trusted.  Holland 
was  not  a  country  at  all,  and  these  men  were  all 
robbers  and  thieves.  They  advised  the  Japa- 
nese authorities  to  let  these  dangerous  people 
starve  or  send  them  away  from  their  island, 
which  would  mean  the  same  thing.  But  the 
news  of  the  arrival  of  some  strange  ships  had 
reached  the  ears  of  the  Emperor  of  Japan.  He 
sent  for  some  of  the  crew  to  come  to  his  court. 
An  Englishman  among  the  sailors  by  the  name 
of  William  Adams  was  chosen  for  this  danger- 
ous mission.  He  not  only  represented  to  his  im- 
perial Majesty  the  sad  state  of  affairs  among  the 
shipwrecked  Hollanders,  but  he  made  himself 
so  useful  at  the  imperial  court  that  he  was  asked 
to  remain  behind  and  serve  the  Japanese  state. 
He  had  a  wife  and  children  at  home  in  England, 
but  he  liked  this  new  country  so  well  that  he 
decided  to  stay.     He  lived  happily  for  twenty 

244 


ATTACK  UPON  COAST  OF  AMERICA 

years,  married  a  Japanese  woman,  and  when  he 
died  in  1620  divided  his  fortune  equally  among 
his  Japanese  and  his  English  families. 

Without  the  assistance  of  Adams,  who  seems 
to  have  been  the  leader  of  the  remaining  sailors 
on  the  hiefde,  it  was  impossible  to  accomplish 
anything  with  the  big  ship.  Of  the  twenty-four 
men  who  had  reached  Japan  only  eighteen  were 
left.  The  ship,  therefore,  was  deserted,  and 
all  the  men  went  on  shore.  Except  for  two,  the 
others  all  disappeared  from  view.  They  prob- 
ably settled  down  in  Japan.  But  in  the  year 
1605,  in  the  month  of  December,  two  Holland- 
ers came  to  the  Dutch  settlement  of  Patani,  on 
the  Indian  peninsula.  They  had  made  the  voy- 
age from  Japan  to  India  on  a  Japanese  ship,  and 
they  brought  to  the  Dutch  company  trading  in 
that  region  an  official  invitation  from  the  Em- 
peror of  Japan  asking  them  to  come  and  enter 
into  honorable  commerce  with  the  Japanese  is- 
lands. This  invitation  was  accepted.  In  the 
year  1608  one  of  the  two  Dutch  messengers  re- 
turned to  Japan  with  letters  announcing  the  ar- 
rival of  a  Dutch  fleet  for  the  next  summer.     He 

245 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

continued  to  live  in  Japan  until  his  death  in 
1634.  The  other  sailor  found  a  chance  to  go 
back  to  Holland  on  a  Dutch  ship,  but  near  home 
he  was  killed  in  a  quarrel  with  some  Portuguese. 
The  net  result  of  this  unfortunate  voyage  of  the 
Liefde  was  the  establishment  of  a  very  useful 
trade  relation  with  Japan — a  relation  which  be- 
came more  important  after  the  Portuguese  had 
been  expelled,  and  which  lasted  for  over  two 
centuries. 

Finally  there  was  the  ship  called  the  Hoop, 
which  had  become  separated  from  the  Liefde  on 
the  coast  of  South  America  in  February  of  the 
year  1600.  It  went  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean  with  everybody  on  board. 


246 


THE  BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN 
BONTEKOE 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN 
BONTEKOE 

CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE  was  a  pious 
man  who  sailed  the  ocean  in  com- 
mand of  several  Dutch  ships  during 
the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He 
never  did  anything  remarkable  as  a  navigator, 
he  never  discovered  a  new  continent  or  a  new 
strait  or  even  a  new  species  of  bird  but  he  was 
blown  up  with  his  ship,  flew  heavenward,  landed 
in  the  ocean,  and  survived  this  experience  to  tell 
a  tale  of  such  harrowing  bad  luck  that  the  com- 
passionate world  read  his  story  for  over  three 
centuries  with  tearful  eyes.  Wherefore  we  shall 
copy  as  much  as  is  desirable  from  his  famous 
diary,  which  was  published  in  the  year  1647. 

On   the   twenty-eighth   of   December  of   the 
year  161 8,  William  Ysbrantsz  Bontekoe,  with  a 

249 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

ship  of  550  ton  and  206  men,  left  the  roads  of 
Texel  for  India.  The  name  of  the  vessel  was 
the  Nieuw  Hoorn,  and  it  was  loaded  with  gun- 
powder. Kindly  remember  that  gunpowder. 
There  were  the  usual  storms,  the  usual  broken 
masts;  the  customary  number  of  sick  sailors 
either  died  or  recovered;  the  customary  route 
along  the  coast  of  Africa  was  followed.  The 
weather,  once  the  cape  was  left  behind,  was  fine, 
and  a  short  stay  on  the  island  of  Reunion  al- 
lowed the  sick  to  regain  their  health  and  the 
dead  to  be  buried.  The  natives  were  well  dis- 
posed and  traded  with  Bontekoe.  They  enter- 
tained him  and  danced  for  the  amusement  of 
his  men,  and  everything  was  as  happy  as  could 
be. 

At  last  the  voyage  across  the  Indian  Ocean 
was  started  under  the  best  of  auspices,  and  the 
Nieuw  Hoorn  had  almost  reached  the  Strait  of 
Sunda  when  the  great  calamity  occurred.  On 
the  nineteenth  of  November,  almost  a  year, 
therefore,  after  the  ship  had  left  Holland,  one 
of  the  pantrymen  went  into  the  hold  to  get  him- 
self some  brandy.     It  was  very  dark  in  the  hold, 

251 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

and  therefore  he  had  taken  a  candle  with  him. 
This  candle,  in  a  short  iron  holder,  with  a  sharp 
point  to  it,  he  stuck  into  a  barrel  which  was  on 
top  of  the  one  out  of  which  he  filled  his  bottle. 
When  he  got  through  with  his  job  he  jerked  the 
iron  candlestick  out  of  the  wood  of  the  barrel. 
In  doing  so  a  small  piece  of  burning  tallow  fell 
into  the  brandy.  That  caused  an  explosion,  and 
the  next  moment  the  brandy  inside  the  barrel 
had  caught  fire.  Fortunately  there  were  two 
pails  of  water  standing  near  by,  and  the  fire  was 
easily  extinguished.  A  lot  more  water  was 
pumped  upon  the  dangerous  barrels,  and  the 
fire,  as  far  as  anybody  could  see  or  smell,  had 
been  put  out.  But  half  an  hour  later  the  dread- 
ful cry  of  "Fire!"  was  heard  once  more  all 
through  the  ship.  This  time  the  coals  which 
were  in  the  hold  near  the  brandy,  and  which 
were  used  for  the  kitchen  stove  and  the  black- 
smith shop,  had  caught  fire.  They  filled  the 
hold  with  poisonous  gas  and  a  thick  and  yellow- 
ish smoke.  For  the  second  time  the  pumps  were 
set  to  work  to  fill  the  hold  with  water.  But  the 
air  inside  the  hold  was  so  bad  that  the  firemen 

252 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

had  a  difficult  task.  As  the  hours  went  by  the 
fire  grew  worse.  Bontekoe  proposed  to  throw 
his  cargo  of  gunpowder  overboard.  But  as  I 
have  related  in  my  first  chapters,  there  always 


was  a  civilian  commander  on  board  such  Indian 
vessels.  It  was  his  duty  to  look  after  the  cargo 
and  to  represent  the  commercial  interest  of  the 
company.  Bontekoe's  civilian  master  did  not 
wish  to  lose  his  valuable  gunpowder.  He  told 
the  captain  to  leave  it  where  it  was  and  try  to 
put  out  the  fire.  Bontekoe  obeyed,  but  soon  his 
men  could  no  longer  stand  the  smoke  in  the  hold. 
Large  holes  were  then  hacked  through  the  deck 
and  through  these  water  was  poured  upon  the 
cargo.  Now  Bontekoe  was  a  pious  man,  but  he 
was  neither  very  strong  of  character  nor  very 

253 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

resourceful  of  mind.  He  spent  his  time  in  run- 
ning about  the  ship  giving  many  orders,  the  ma- 
jority of  which  were  to  no  great  purpose. 
Meanwhile  he  did  not  notice  that  part  of  the 
crew,  from  fear  of  being  blown  up,  had  lowered 
the  boats  and  were  getting  ready  to  leave  the 
ship.  The  civilian  director,  who  had  just  told 
the  captain  to  save  the  gunpowder,  had  been  the 
first  to  join  in  the  flight.  He  was  soon  safely 
riding  the  waves  in  a  small  boat  far  away  from 
the  doomed  ship. 

For  those  who  had  been  deserted  on  board 
there  was  only  one  way  to  salvation;  they  must 
try  to  put  out  the  fire  or  be  killed.  Under  per- 
sonal command  of  their  captain  they  set  to  work 
and  pumped  and  pumped  and  pumped.  But 
the  fire  had  reached  several  barrels  of  oil,  and 
there  was  a  dense  smoke.  It  was  impossible  to 
throw  310  barrels  of  powder  overboard  in  the 
suffocating  atmosphere  of  the  hold,  yet  the  men 
tried  to  do  it.  They  worhed  with  desperate 
speed,  but  before  the  sixth  part  of  the  dangerous 
cargo  was  in  the  waters  of  the  ocean  the  fire 
reached  the  forward  part,  where  the  powder 

254 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

was  stored.  A  few  moments  later  one  hundred 
and  ninety  men  were  blown  skyward,  together 
with  pieces  of  the  masts  and  pieces  of  the  ship 
and  heavy  iron  bars  and  pieces  of  sail  and  every- 


thing that  belongs  to  a  well-equipped  vessel. 
"And  I,  Captain  Willem  Ysbrantsz  Bontekoe, 
commander  of  the  ship,  also  flew  through  the 
sky,  and  I  thought  that  my  end  had  come.  So  I 
stretched  my  hands  and  arms  toward  heaven 
and  said :  'O  dear  Lord,  there  I  go !  Please  have 
pity  upon  this  miserable  sinner!'  because  I 
thought  that  now  the  next  moment  I  must  be 
dead;  but  all  the  time  I  was  flying  through  the 
air  I  kept  my  mind  clear,  and  I  found  that  there 
was  happiness  in  my  heart;  yes,  I  even  found 

255 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

that  I  was  quite  gay,  and  so  came  down  again, 
and  landed  in  the  water  between  pieces  of  the 
ship  which  had  been  blown  into  little  scraps." 

This  is  the  captain's  own  minute  account  of 
the  psychology  of  being  blown  up.  He  con- 
tinues : 

''And  when  I  was  now  once  in  the  water  of 
the  sea,  I  felt  my  courage  return  in  such  a  way 
that  it  was  as  if  I  had  become  a  new  man.  And 
when  I  looked  around  I  found  a  piece  of  the 
mainmast  floating  at  my  side,  and  so  I  climbed 
on  top  of  it,  and  looking  over  the  scene  around 
me,  I  said,  'O  Lord,  so  hath  this  fine  ship  been 
destroyed  even  as  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.'  " 

For  a  short  while  the  skipper  floated  and  con- 
templated upon  his  mast,  and  then  he  noticed 
that  he  was  no  longer  alone.  A  young  German 
who  had  been  on  board  as  a  common  sailor  came 
swimming  to  the  wreckage.  He  climbed  on 
the  only  piece  of  the  ship's  stern  that  was  afloat, 
and  pulling  the  captain's  mast  nearer  to  him 
with  a  long  stick  which  he  had  fished  out  of 
the  water,  he  helped  our  good  Bontekoe  to  pull 
himself   on  board   his  wreckage.     There   they 

256 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

were  together  on  the  lonely  ocean  on  a  few 
boards  and  with  no  prospect  of  rescue.  Both 
the  boats  were  far  away,  and  showed  themselves 
only  as  small  black  dots  upon  the  distant  hori- 
zon. Bontekoe  told  his  comrade  to  pray  with 
him.  For  a  long  time  they  whispered  their  sup- 
plications to  heaven.  Then  they  looked  once 
more  to  see  what  the  boats  were  doing.  And 
behold!  their  prayer  had  been  answered.  The 
boats  came  rowing  back  as  fast  as  they  could. 
When  they  saw  the  two  men  they  tried  to  reach 


the  wreckage;  but  they  did  not  dare  to  come  too 
near  for  their  heavily  loaded  boats  ran  the  risk 
of  being  thrown  against  the  remains  of  the  hulk. 
In  that  case  they  would  have  been  swamped. 

257 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Bontekoe  had  felt  very  happy  as  long  as  he  had 
been  up  in  the  air.  Now,  however,  he  began  to 
notice  that  he  had  hurt  his  back  badly  and  that 
he  had  been  wounded  in  the  head.  He  did  not 
dare  to  swim  to  the  boats,  but  the  bugler  of  the 
ship,  who  was  in  the  first  boat,  swam  back  to 
the  wreckage,  fastened  a  rope  around  Bonte- 
koe's  waist,  and  in  this  fashion  the  commander 
was  pulled  safely  on  board,  where  he  was  made 
as  comfortable  as  could  be.  During  the  night 
the  two  boats  remained  near  the  place  of  the 
misfortune  because  they  hoped  that  they  might 
find  a  few  things  to  eat  in  the  morning.  They 
had  only  a  little  bread  and  no  water  at  all. 

Meanwhile  the  exhausted  skipper  slept,  and 
when  in  the  morning  his  men  told  him  that  they 
had  nothing  to  eat  he  was  very  angry,  for  the 
day  before  the  sea  around  his  mast  had  been  full 
of  all  sorts  of  boxes  and  barrels  and  there  had 
been  enough  to  eat  for  everybody.  During  the 
night,  however,  the  boats  had  been  blown  away 
from  the  wreckage  by  the  wind.  There  was  no 
chance  to  get  anything  at  all.  Eight  pounds  of 
bread  made  up  the  total  amount  of  provisions 

258 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 


for  seventy  strong  men.  Of  these  there  were 
forty-six  in  one  and  twenty-six  in  the  second  boat. 
Part  of  that  bread  was  used  by  the  ship's  doctor 
to  make  a  piaster  for  Bontekoe's  wounds.  With 
the  help  of  a  pillow  which  had  been  found  in 
the  locker  of  the  biggest  boat  and  which  he  wore 
around  his  head,  Bontekoe  was  then  partly  re- 
stored to  life,  and  he  took  command  of  his 
squadron  and  decided  what  ought  to  be  done. 
There  were  masts  in  the  boat,  but  the  sails  had 
been  forgotten.  Therefore  he  ordered  the  men 
to  give  up  their  shirts.  Out  of  these,  two  large 
sails  were  made.  They  were  primitive  sails, 
but  they  caught  the  breeze,  and  with  the  help 
of  the  western  wind  Bontekoe  hoped  to  reach 
the  coast  of  Sumatra,  which,  according  to  the 
best  guess  of  all  those  on  board,  must  be  seventy 
miles  to  the  east.     All  those  who  had  the  map 

259 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

of  that  part  of  India  fairly  well  in  their  heads 
were  consulted,  and  upon  a  piece  of  wood  a 
chart  of  the  coast  of  Sumatra,  the  Sunda  Islands, 
and  the  west  coast  of  Java  was  neatly  engraved 
with  the  help  of  a  nail  and  a  pocket-knife.     A 


few  simple  instruments  were  cut  out  of  old 
planks,  and  the  curious  expedition  was  ready  to 
navigate  further  eastward. 

Fortunately  it  rained  very  hard  during  the 
first  night.  The  sails  made  out  of  shirts  were 
used  to  catch  the  rain,  and  the  water  was  care- 
fully saved  in  two  small  empty  barrels  which 
had  been  found  in  one  of  the  two  boats.  A 
drinking-cup  was  cut  out  of  a  wooden  stopper, 
and  each  of  the  sailors  in  turn  got  a  few  drops 
of  water.  For  many  hours  they  sailed,  and  they 
became  dreadfully  hungry.     Again  a  merciful 

260 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

Heaven  came  to  their  assistance.  A  number  of 
sea-gulls  came  flying  around  the  boats,  and  many 
of  them  ventured  so  near  that  they  seemed  to 
say  ''Please  catch  us."  Of  course  they  v^ere 
caught  and  killed,  and  although  there  was  no 


way  of  cooking  them,  they  were  eaten  by  the 
hungry  men  as  fast  as  they  came.  But  a  sea- 
gull is  not  a  very  fat  bird,  and  again  there  was 
hunger,  and  not  yet  any  sight  of  land.  The  big 
boat  was  a  good  sailor,  but  the  small  one  could 
not  keep  up  with  her.  Therefore  the  men  in 
the  small  boat  asked  that  they  might  be  taken  on 

261 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

board  the  big  one,  so  that  they  might  either  per- 
ish together  or  all  be  saved.  The  sailors  in  the 
large  boat  did  not  like  the  idea.  They  feared 
that  their  boat  could  not  hold  all  of  the  seventy- 
six  men.  After  a  while,  how^ever,  they  gave  in. 
The  men  from  the  small  boat  v^ere  taken  on 
board.  Out  of  the  extra  oars  a  sort  of  deck  w^as 
rigged  up  on  top  of  the  boat,  and  under  this  a 
number  of  the  men  were  allowed  to  sleep  while 
the  others  sat  on  top  and  looked  for  land  or 
prayed  for  food  and  water. 

No  further  sea-gulls  came  to  feed  this  forlorn 
expedition,  but  just  when  they  were  so  hungry 
that  they  could  not  stand  it  any  longer,  large 
shoals  of  flying-fish  suddenly  jumped  out  of  the 
water  into  the  boats.  Again  the  men  were 
saved.  The  two  little  barrels  of  water  had  been 
emptied  by  this  time.  For  the  second  time  the 
men  expected  that  they  would  all  perish.  They 
sailed  eastward,  but  they  saw  no  land,  and  finally 
they  got  so  hungry  and  thirsty  that  they  talked 
about  killing  the  cabin  boy  and  eating  him. 
Bontekoe  asked  them  please  not  to  do  it,  and  he 
prayed  the  good  Lord  not  to  allow  this  horrible 

262 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

thing  to  happen.  The  men,  however,  said  that 
they  were  very  hungry  and  must  have  some- 
thing to  eat.  Then  he  asked  that  they  should 
wait  just  three  days  more.  If  no  land  was  seen 
after  three  days,  they  might  eat  the  cabin  boy. 

On  the  thirteenth  day  after  the  explosion  there 
was  a  severe  thunder-storm,  and  the  barrels  were 
filled  with  fresh  water.  Most  of  the  men  then 
crept  under  the  little  cover  to  be  out  of  the  rain, 
and  only  one  of  the  mates  was  left  on  deck.  It 
was  very  hazy,  but  when  the  fog  parted  for  a 
moment  he  saw  land  very  near  the  boat.  The 
next  morning  the  survivors  reached  an  uninhab- 
ited island,  where  there  was  no  fresh  water,  but 
an  abundance  of  cocoanut-trees.  The  men  at- 
tacked these  cocoanuts  with  such  greedy  hunger 
and  they  drank  the  sap  with  such  haste  that  on 
the  succeeding  day  they  were  all  very  ill,  with 
great  pains  and  a  feeling  that  they  might  explode 
at  any  moment  just  as  their  ship  had  done. 

From  the  presence  of  this  island  Bontekoe 
argued  that  the  coast  of  Sumatra  must  be  about 
fifteen  miles  distant.  He  filled  the  boat  with 
many  cocoanuts,  a  wonderful  fruit  because  it  is 

263 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

food  and  drink  at  the  same  time,  and  sailed 
farther  eastward.  After  seventy  hours  he  ac- 
tually reached  Sumatra,  but  the  surf  did  not  al- 
low him  to  land  at  once.  It  took  an  entire  day 
before  his  men  managed  to  row  through  that  ter- 
rible surf,  and  then  only  at  the  cost  of  a  swamped 
boat.  At  last,  however,  they  did  reach  the 
shore,  bailed  out  their  boat,  and  made  a  fire  to 
dry  their  clothes  and  to  rest  from  the  fatigue  of 
this  terrible  experience.  Some  of  the  sailors 
meanwhile  explored  the  country  near  by,  and 
to  their  great  astonishment  they  found  the  ashes 
of  an  old  fire  and  near  it  some  tobacco.  This 
was  very  welcome,  for  the  men  had  not  smoked 
for  many  weeks.  They  also  found  some  beans. 
These  they  ate  so  greedily  that  they  were  all  ill, 
and  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  when  they  lay 
around  groaning  and  moaning,  they  were  sud- 
denly attacked  by  the  natives  of  the  island. 
They  had  no  arms,  but  they  defended  themselves 
as  well  as  possible  with  sticks  and  pieces  of  burn- 
ing wood  which  they  picked  up  out  of  the  fire. 
The  natives  fled,  and  the  next  morning  sent  three 
messengers  to  have  a  talk  with  the  shipwrecked 

264 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

Hollanders.  They  wanted  to  know  why  he  and 
his  men  had  come  to  their  island.  They  were 
told  the  story  of  the  burning  ship  and  the  explo- 
sion which  had  killed  many  of  the  other  sailors. 
Bontekoe  said  that  he  was  a  peaceful  traveler, 
and  would  pay  for  everything  he  bought.  The 
natives  believed  this  story,  and  came  back  with 
chickens  and  rice  and  all  sorts  of  eatables,  for 
which  Bontekoe  paid  with  money.  The  natives 
then  told  him  that  this  land  was  Sumatra  and 
that  Java  was  a  little  farther  to  the  east.  They 
even  knew  the  name  of  the  governor-general, 
and  Bontekoe  now  felt  certain  that  he  was  on 
the  right  road  to  a  Dutch  harbor. 

Before  he  left  he  made  a  little  trip  up  the  river 
to  buy  more  food,  for  he  counted  upon  a  long 
voyage  in  the  small  boat.  This  visit  almost  cost 
him  his  life.  One  day  he  had  bought  a  carabao. 
He  had  paid  for  the  animal,  and  told  the  four 
sailors  who  were  with  him  to  bring  it  to  the 
camp;  but  the  carabao  was  so  wild  that  they 
could  not  manage  it.  The  four  sailors  decided 
to  spend  the  night  in  the  village  and  try  their 
luck  once  more  the  next  morning,     Bontekoe 

265 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

thought  that  this  was  too  dangerous,  and  when 
his  men  refused  to  return  to  join  the  others,  he 
hired  two  natives  to  paddle  him  back  in  their 
own  canoe.     The  natives  told  him  the  price  for 


which  they  would  row  him  back  to  the  camp, 
and  he  gave  them  the  required  sum;  but  when 
they  were  out  in  the  middle  of  the  river  they 
threatened  to  kill  Bontekoe  unless  he  gave  them 
more  money.  Bontekoe  said  a  short  prayer  and 
felt  very  uncomfortable.  Then  he  heard  a 
voice  inside  himself  tell  him  to  sing  a  funny  song. 

266 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

This  he  did.  He  sang  so  loud  that  the  noise 
resounded  through  the  quiet  forests  on  both  sides 
of  the  river.  The  two  natives  thought  that  this 
was  the  funniest  thing  that  they  had  ever  heard, 
and  they  laughed  so  uproariously  that  they  for- 
got all  about  their  plan  to  kill  the  white  man, 
and  Bontekoe  came  safely  back  to  his  own 
people. 

The  next  morning  a  number  of  natives  ap- 
peared with  a  carabao,  but  Bontekoe  saw  at  once 
that  it  was  not  the  same  one  that  he  had  bought 
the  day  before.  He  asked  about  it,  and  wanted 
to  know  where  his  men  were.  "Oh,"  the  natives 
said,  ''they  are  lazy  and  they  will  come  a  little 
later."  This  looked  suspicious,  but  whatever 
happened,  Bontekoe  must  have  his  carabao  to 
be  eaten  on  the  trip  across  the  Strait  of  Sunda. 
Therefore  he  tried  to  kill  the  animal,  but  when 
they  saw  this  the  natives  suddenly  began  to  call 
him  names  and  they  shrieked  until  several  hun- 
dred others  came  running  from  the  bushes  and 
attacked  the  Hollanders.  These  fled  back  to 
their  boat,  but  before  they  could  reach  it  eleven 
men  had  been  killed.     Of  those  who  scrambled 

267 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

on  board  one  had  been  hit  in  the  stomach  with 
a  poisoned  arrow.  Bontekoe  performed  an 
operation,  trying  to  cut  away  the  flesh  around 
the  wound,  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  saving  the 
life  of  the  poor  fellow.  There  were  now  only 
fifty-six  men  left. 

With  only  eight  chickens  for  so  many  men 
Bontekoe  did  not  dare  to  cross  the  strait.  The 
next  morning,  armed,  he  went  on  shore,  and,  hav- 
ing gathered  a  lot  of  clams  and  filled  the  small 
barrels  with  fresh  water,  sailed  away  for  the 
coast  of  Java.  They  sailed  all  day  long,  but  at 
night  there  came  so  violent  a  wind  that  the 
sails  had  to  be  taken  down,  and  the  boat  drifted 
whither  it  pleased  the  good  Lord  to  send  it.  It 
pleased  Him  to  bring  it  the  next  morning  near 
three  small  islands  densely  covered  with  palm- 
trees.  Out  of  the  bamboo  which  grew  near  the 
shore  several  water-barrels  were  improvised. 
There  was  still  some  food,  but  not  much. 
Therefore  the  discovery  of  these  islands  did  not 
bring  much  relief  to  the  poor  shipwrecked  peo- 
ple. Bontekoe  wandered  about  in  a  despondent 
mood,  and  when  he  saw  a  small  hill  he  climbed 

268 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 


to  the  top  of  It  to  be  alone  and  to  pray  to  the  good 
Lord  for  his  divine  counsel.  He  prayed  for  a 
long  time,  and  when  at  last  he  opened  his  eyes 
he  saw  that  the  clouds  on  the  horizon  had  parted 
and  that  there  was  more  land  in  the  distance, 
and  out  of  this  he  saw  two  bluish-looking  moun- 
tains lifting  their  peaks.  Suddenly  he  re- 
membered that  his  friend,  Captain  Schouten, 
who  had  been  in  those  parts  of  India,  had  often 
told  him  of  two  strange  blue  mountains  which 
he  had  often  seen  in  Java.  He  had  sailed  across 
the  sea  which  separated  Sumatra  from  Java,  and 
the  island  on  which  he  and  his  men  now  were 
was  a  little  island  off  the  coast  of  Java.  He 
knew  his  way  now,  and  he  ordered  his  men  to 
row  as  fast  as  they  could.  A  boy  was  told  to 
climb  the  mast  and  keep  watch.  And,  behold! 
the  next  day  the  sailors  suddenly  saw  a  large 

269 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Dutch  fleet  of  twenty-three  ships,  under  Fred- 
erik  Houtman,  who  had  left  Texel  with  Bonte- 
koe  and  was  on  his  way  to  Batavia.  He  took  all 
the  men  on  board  his  ships.  He  fed  them,  gave 
them  clothes,  and  carried  them  to  Batavia, 
the  newly  founded  capital  of  the  Dutch  East 
Indies,  where  the  governor  general,  one  Jan 
Pieterszoon  Coen,  received  them  very  kindly, 
and  appointed  Bontekoe  to  be  captain  of  a  new 
ship,  of  thirty-two  guns,  which  plied  between 
the  different  colonies  and  carried  provisions  and 
supplies  of  war  from  Java  to  the  other  colonies. 
It  also  brought  to  Java  the  granite  which  was 
necessary  to  build  the  strong  fort  where  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  colony  was  to  reside.  Later  on 
Bontekoe  was  made  captain  of  another  ship 
called  the  Groningen,  and  he  visited  China, 
where  the  Dutch  company  tried  to  capture  the 
Portuguese  colony  in  Macao  and  to  build  a  fort 
on  one  of  the  Pescadores  Islands  to  protect  their 
Chinese  trade. 

After  two  years  of  this  work  Bontekoe  wanted 
to  return  home,  and  he  asked  to  be  given  the 
command  of  a  ship  that  was  about  to  leave  for 

270 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

Holland.  He  was  given  command  of  the  Hol- 
landia,  which  with  two  other  ships  left  Batavia 
on  the  sixth  of  February  of  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1625.  But  Bontekoe's  bad  luck  had  not  yet 
come  to  an  end.  This  patient  man,  who  never 
lost  his  temper  and  accepted  everything  that 
happened  to  him  with  devout  resignation,  once 
more  became  the  victim  of  all  sorts  of  unfortu- 
nate occurrences.  On  the  nineteenth  of  March 
his  ship  was  attacked  by  a  terrible  storm,  and 
soon  the  waves  threatened  to  swamp  the  vessel. 
Bontekoe  ordered  the  men  to  work  the  pumps 
as  hard  as  they  could.  Then  the  pepper  stowed 
away  in  the  hold  broke  loose,  got  into  the 
pumps  and  clogged  them.  Finally  baskets  were 
placed  about  the  lower  part  of  the  pumps  to  keep 
the  pernicious  pepper  out  of  them,  and  the  Hol- 
landia  was  saved. 

Of  the  other  two  ships,  one,  the  Gouda,  had 
disappeared  when  the  morning  came,  and  the 
other,  the  Middelburg,  had  suffered  much. 
Her  masts  were  broken,  and  they  had  no  spare 
the  Atlantic.  Finally  the  Middelburg  left 
part  of  his  spare  yards  for  masts,  and  then  he 

271 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

sailed  with  all  possible  haste  for  Madagascar  to 
repair  his  own  damage.  He  reached  the  island 
inside  a  week,  and  cut  himself  a  mast  out  of  a 
tree.     He  repaired  his  ship  and  spent  a  month 


on  the  island,  where  he  was  well  received  by 
the  natives,  who  flocked  from  all  over  to  see  how 
the  Hollanders  made  a  new  ship  out  of  the 
wreck  which  they  had  saved  from  the  storm. 
Here  Bontekoe  waited  for  the  other  ships.  But 
the  Gouda  had  sunk,  and  the  other,  the  Middel- 
burg,  reached  Madagascar  much  later,  and  spent 
several  months  in  the  bay  of  Antongil.     Most  of 

272 


/ 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

her  people  were  ill  and  among  those  who  died 
on  the  island  was  the  commander  of  the  ship, 
Willem  Schouten,  who  with  Le  Maire  had 
discovered  the  new  route  between  the  Pacific 
and  the  Atlantic.  Finally  the  Middleburg  left 
Madagascar  and  sailed  to  St.  Helena.  There 
she  got  into  a  fight  with  two  Portuguese  vessels, 
and  that  is  the  last  word  word  we  have  ever  re- 
ceived of  her.  As  for  Bontekoe,  he,  too,  reached 
St.  Helena,  where  he  wanted  to  take  in  fresh 
water.  But  a  Spanish  ship  had  landed  troops, 
and  he  was  not  allowed  to  come  on  shore.  So 
he  went  farther  on,  and  at  last  reached  Kinsale 
in  Ireland.  This  time  the  joys  of  life  on  land 
almost  finished  the  brave  captain  who  so  often 
had  escaped  the  anger  of  the  waves.  His  sail- 
ors went  on  shore,  and  after  the  long  voyage 
they  appreciated  the  hospitality  of  the  Irish 
inns  so  well  that  they  refused  to  come  back  on 
board.  They  stayed  on  shore  until  the  mayor 
of  the  city,  at  the  request  of  Bontekoe,  forbade 
the  owners  of  ale-houses  to  give  the  Hollanders 
more  than  seven  shillings'  credit  apiece.  As 
soon  as  this  was  known  the  men,  many  of  whom 

273 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

had  spent  much  more  than  that,  hastened  back 
to  their  ship.  Crowds  of  furious  innkeepers 
and  their  wives,  crying  aloud  for  their  money, 
followed  them. 

Good  Captain  Bontekoe  paid  everybody  what 
he  or  she  had  a  right  to  ask,  and  finally,  on  the 
twenty-fifth  of  November  of  the  year  1625,  he 
reached  home.  Bontekoe  went  to  live  quietly 
in  his  native  city  of  Hoorn.  He  had  written  a 
short  account  of  his  voyage,  but  he  had  never 
printed  it  because  he  did  not  think  that  he 
could  write  well  enough.  But  one  of  his  fellow- 
townsmen  wanted  to  write  a  large  volume  upon 
the  noble  deeds  of  the  people  of  Hoorn,  and  he 
asked  Bontekoe  to  write  down  the  main  events 
of  his  famous  voyage,  and  he  promised  to  edit 
the  little  book  for  the  benefit  of  the  reading 
public. 

And  behold!  this  same  public,  saturated  with 
stories  of  wild  men  and  wild  animals  and  ter- 
rible storms  and  uninhabited  islands  and  treach- 
erous Portuguese  and  hairbreadth  escapes,  took 
such  a  fancy  to  the  simple  recital  of  Bontekoe's 
pious  trip  toward  heaven  and  the  patience  with 

274 


BAD  LUCK  OF  CAPTAIN  BONTEKOE 

which  he  had  accepted  the  vicissitudes  of  life 
that  they  read  his  little  book  long  after  the  more 
ponderous  volumes  had  been  left  to  the  kind 
ministrations  of  the  meritorious  book-v/orm. 


275 


SCHOUTEN  AND  LE  MAIRE 
DISCOVER  A  NEW  STRAIT 


CHAPTER  IX 

SCHOUTEN  AND  LE  MAIRE 
DISCOVER  A  NEW  STRAIT 

THIS  is  the  story  of  a  voyage  to  a  coun- 
try which  did  not  exist.  The  men 
who  risked  their  capital  in  this  expedi- 
tion hoped  to  reach  a  territory  which  we  now 
call  Australia.  It  was  not  exactly  the  Australia 
which  we  know  from  our  modern  geography. 
It  was  a  mysterious  continent  of  which  there  had 
been  heard  many  rumors  for  more  than  half 
a  century.  What  the  contemporary  traveler 
really  hoped  to  find  we  do  not  know,  but  we 
have  the  details  of  an  expedition  to  this  new  land 
called  "Terra  Australis  incognita"  or  "the  un- 
known southern  land,"  an  expedition  which  left 
the  harbor  of  Hoorn  on  the  fifteenth  of  June  of 
the  year  1615. 

Hoorn  is  a  little  city  on  the  Zuyder  Zee,  just 

279 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

such  a  little  city  as  Enkhuizen,  from  which  Lin- 
schoten  had  set  out  upon  his  memorable  voyage. 
This  voyage  had  a  short  preface  which  has  little 
to  do  with  navigation,  but  much  with  provincial 
politics  and  commercial  rivalry.  The  original 
idea  of  allowing  everybody  to  found  his  own 
little  Indian  trading  company  after  his  own 
wishes  had  been  a  bad  one  from  an  economic 
point  of  view.  There  was  so  much  competition 
between  the  three  dozen  little  companies  that  all 
were  threatened  with  bankruptcy.  Therefore 
a  financial  genius,  the  eminent  leader  of  the 
province  of  Holland,  John  of  Barneveldt,  took 
matters  into  his  own  capable  hands  and  com- 
bined all  the  little  companies  into  one  large  East 
f,  0 1*  India  Trading  Company,  a  commercial  body 
which  existed  until  the  year  1795  and  was  a 
great  success  from  start  to  finish. 

Among  the  original  investors  there  had  been 
a  certain  Jacques  le  Maire,  a  native  of  the  town 
of  Antwerp  who  had  fled  when  the  Spaniards 
took  that  city  for  the  second  time,  and  who  now 
lived  in  Amsterdam  with  his  wife  and  his 
twenty-two  children.       He  was  respected  for 

280 


A  NEW  STRAIT 

his  ability,  and  was  chosen  into  the  body  of  direc- 
tors who  managed  the  affairs  of  the  East  India 
Company.  But  Le  Maire  was  not  the  sort  of 
man  to  stay  in  the  harness  with  others  for  a  very 


long  time.  He  complained  that  the  company 
cared  only  for  dividends  and  immediate  profits. 
He  wanted  to  see  the  ships  of  his  adopted  country 
make  war  upon  the  Spaniards,  besides  trying  to 
steal  their  colonies. 

After  a  few  years  Le  Maire  quarreled  openly 
with  several  of  the  other  directors,  and  he 
planned  to  form  an  Indian  company  of  his  own. 

281 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

In  Amsterdam,  however,  he  was  so  strongly  op- 
posed by  his  enemies,  who  were  still  in  the  old 
company,  that  he  was  forced  to  leave  the  city. 
He  went  to  live  in  a  small  village  near  by  and 
continued  to  work  upon  his  schemes.  With 
Hendrik  Hudson  he  discussed  a  plan  of  reach- 
ing the  Indies  by  way  of  the  Northwestern 
Route — a  route  which  was  as  yet  untried.  To 
King  Henry  IV  of  France  he  made  the  offer  of 
establishing  a  new  French  company  as  a  rival 
of  the  mighty  Dutch  institution.  All  these 
many  ideas  came  to  nothing.  Henry  IV  was 
murdered,  and  Hudson  went  into  the  service  of 
another  employer. 

Le  Maire  was  obliged  to  invent  something 
new.  He  was  in  a  very  difficult  position.  The 
Estates  General  of  the  Dutch  Republic  had  given 
to  their  one  East  India  Company  a  practical 
monopoly  of  the  entire  Indian  trade.  They  de- 
cided that  no  Dutch  ships  should  be  allowed  to 
travel  to  the  Indies  except  through  the  Strait  of 
Magellan  or  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
That  meant  that  the  entrance  to  the  Indian  spice 
islands  was  closed  at  both  sides.     It  was  of 

282 


A  NEW  STRAIT 


course  easy  enough  to  sail  through  the  strait  or 
past  the  cape.  There  was  nobody  to  prevent  one 
from  doing  so.  But  when  one  tried  to  trade  in 
India  on  his  own  account,  the  Dutch  company 
sent  their  men-of-war  after  the  intruder.  These 
wanted  to  know  who  he  was  and  how  he  came 


within  the  domain  of  the  company.  Since  there 
were  only  two  roads,  he  must  have  trespassed  in 
one  way  or  the  other  upon  the  privileges  of  the 
company.  Therefore  the  company,  which  was 
the  sovereign  ruler  of  all  the  Indian  islands,  had 
the  right  to  confiscate  his  ships. 

If  Le  Maire  could  only  find  a  new  road  to  In- 
dia, he  would  not  interfere  with  the  strict  rules 
of  the  Estates  General.  His  ships  could  then 
trade  in  the  Pacific  and  in  the  Indian  Ocean, 

283 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

and  he  would  be  the  most  dangerous  rival  of  the 
old  company,  which  he  had  learned  to  hate  since 
the  days  when  he  had  first  invested  sixty  thou- 
sand  guilders  and  had  been  one  of  the  directors. 
For  a  long  time  Le  Maire  studied  books  and 
maps  and  atlases,  and  finally  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  there  must  be  another  way  of  getting 
from  the  Atlantic  into  the  Pacific  besides  the  long 
and  tortuous  Strait  of  Magellan.  And  if  there 
were  a  strait,  there  must  be  land  on  the  other 
side  of  it.  If  only  this  could  be  discovered,  Le 
Maire  would  be  rich  again,  and  could  laugh  at 
the  pretentions  of  the  East  India  Company. 

Le  Maire  did  not  go  to  Amsterdam  to  get  the 
necessary  funds  for  his  expedition.  He  inter- 
ested the  good  people  of  the  little  town  of 
Hoorn,  and  with  a  fine  prospectus  about  his 
"Unknown  Southern  Land"  he  soon  got  all  the 
money  he  needed.  The  Estates  General  were 
willing  to  give  him  all  the  privileges  he  asked 
for  provided  he  did  not  touch  the  monopolies 
of  their  beloved  East  India  Company.  Even 
Prince  Maurice  interested  himself  sufficiently 
in  this  voyage  to  a  new  continent  to  give  Le 

284 


A  NEW  STRAIT 

Maire  a  letter  of  introduction  which  put  the 
expedition  upon  more  official  footing. 

Two  small  ships  were  bought,  and  eighty- 
seven  men  were  engaged  for  two  years.  On  the 
largest  ship  of  the  two,  called  the  Eendracht, 
there  were  sixty-five  men,  and  on  the  small  yacht 
the  Hoorn  there  were  twenty-two.  William 
Cornelisz  Schouten  was  commander-in-chief. 
He  had  made  three  trips  to  India  by  way  of 
the  cape.  Two  sons  of  Le  Maire,  one  called 
Jacques,  the  other  Daniel,  went  with  the  expedi- 
tion to  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon  everything  and 
to  see  to  it  that  their  father's  wishes  were  care- 
fully executed.  The  ships  were  forbidden  to  en- 
ter the  Strait  of  Magellan.  In  case  of  need  they 
might  return  by  way  of  the  Cape,  but  they  must 
be  careful  not  to  trade  with  any  of  the  Indian 
princes  who  now  recognized  the  rule  of  the  East 
India  Company.  The  main  purpose  of  the  ex- 
pedition was  to  find  the  unknown  continent  in 
the  Pacific.  For  this  main  purpose  they  must 
sacrifice  everything  else.  And  so  they  left 
Hoorn,  and  they  sailed  toward  the  south. 

It  was  more  than  twenty  years  since  the  first 

285 


/< 


A  NEW  STRAIT 

expedition  had  sailed  for  India.  The  route 
across  the  Atlantic  was  well  known  by  this  time. 
There  is  nothing  particular  to  narrate  about  the 
dull  trip  of  three  months  enlivened  only  by  the 
attack  of  a  large  monster,  a  sort  of  unicorn, 
which  stuck  his  horn  into  the  ship  with  such  vio- 
lence that  he  perished  and  left  behind  the  horn, 
which  was  found  when  the  ships  were  over- 
hauled near  the  island  of  Porto  Deseado,  where 
Van  Noort,  too,  had  made  ready  for  his  trip 
through  the  strait  many  years  before. 

The  cleaning  of  the  smaller  of  the  two  ves- 
sels, however,  was  done  so  carelessly  that  it 
caught  fire.  Since  it  had  been  placed  on  a  high 
bank  at  high  tide  and  the  water  had  ebbed,  there 
was  no  water  with  which  to  extinguish  the  con- 
flagration. Except  for  the  guns,  the  entire  ship 
and  its  contents  were  lost. 

The  sailors  were  taken  on  board  the  Een- 
dracht,  and  on  the  thirteenth  of  January  of  the 
year  1616  the  ship  passed  by  the  entrance  of  the 
Strait  of  Magellan  and  began  to  search  for  a 
new  thoroughfare  into  the  Pacific  farther  toward 
the  South.     On  the  twenty-third  of  January  the 

287 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

most  eastern  promontory  of  Tierra  del  Fuego 
was  seen.  The  next  day  the  high  mountains  of 
another  little  island  further  toward  the  east  ap- 
peared in  the  distance.  Evidently  Le  Maire 
had  been  right  in  his  calculations.  There  was 
another  strait,  and  the  Eendracht  had  discovered 
it.  Such  big  events  are  usually  very  simple  af- 
fairs. The  southernmost  point  of  Tierra  del 
Fuego  was  easily  reached  and  was  called  Cape 
Hoorn,  after  the  town  which  had  equipped  the 
expedition.  The  Eendracht  now  sailed  further 
westward,  and  in  less  than  two  weeks  found  her- 
self in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  On  the  twelfth  of 
February  the  great  discovery  was  celebrated 
with  a  party  for  the  benefit  of  the  sailors.  They 
had  been  the  first  to  pass  through  the  Strait  of 
Jacques  le  Maire  and  the  dangerous  route  dis- 
covered by  Magellan  ninety-five  years  before 
could  now  be  given  up  for  the  safer  and  shorter 
passage  through  Strait  le  Maire  and  the  open 
water  south  of  Tierra  del  Fuego. 

The  ship  had  an  easy  voyage  until  it  dropped 
its  anchors  before  Juan  Fernandez,  the  famous 
island  of  Robinson  Crusoe.     It  was  found  to  be 

288 


A  NEW  STRAIT 


'Vcylattdt  van.  CoanTemando 


the  little  paradise  which  De  Foe  afterward 
painted  in  his  entertaining  novel.  Fresh  water 
was  taken  on  board,  and  the  voyage  was  contin- 
ued. After  a  month  of  rapid  progress,  with  a 
good  eastern  wind,  land  was  seen.  It  was  a 
small  coral  island,  probably  one  of  the  Paomuta 
group.  Some  men  swam  ashore,  for  it  was  im- 
possible to  use  the  boat  on  account  of  the  heavy 
surf.  They  saw  nothing  but  a  flat,  naked  island 
and  three  strange  dogs  that  did  not  bark. 
They  found  some  fresh  fruit,  which  they 
brought  back  to  the  ship  for  the  sick  people. 
Of  course  there  were  sick  people.  That  was  a 
part  of  every  voyage.  But  the  illness  was  not 
serious.  Four  days  later  they  discovered  a  sec- 
ond island  somewhat  larger.  This  was  inhab- 
ited. A  canoe  with  painted  savages  came  out 
to   the   Dutch   ship.     Since   the  savages   spoke 

289 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

neither  Dutch,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  nor  Malay, 
and  the  Dutch  sailors  did  not  know  the  Papua 
dialect,  it  was  impossible  to  have  conversation 
with  these  ignorant  people  who  refused  to  come 
on  board.  Captain  Schouten  was  not  in  need 
of  anything,  and  he  went  on  his  way  to  try  his 
luck  at  the  next  island.  The  natives  had  now 
discovered  that  there  was  no  harm  in  this 
strange,  large  floating  object.  They  came 
climbing  over  all  the  sides  of  the  ship.  They 
stole  brass  nails  and  small  metal  objects,  hid 
them  in  their  wooly  and  long  hair,  and  then 
jumped  overboard.  Everywhere  the  same 
thing  happened.  Schouten  sailed  from  one 
island  to  the  next,  but  of  any  new  continent, 
however,  he  found  no  sign.  When  you  look  at 
the  map  you  will  notice  that  this  part  of  the 
Pacific  is  thickly  dotted  with  small  islands. 
Their  inhabitants  are  great  mariners,  and  in 
their  little  boats  travel  long  distances.  Schouten 
with  his  big  ship  caused  great  consternation 
among  these  simple  fishermen,  who  hastily  fled 
whenever  they  saw  this  strange  big  devil  bear- 
ing down  upon  them. 

290 


A  NEW  STRAIT 

The  trip  was  very  pleasant,  but  it  grew  tire- 
some to  discover  nothing  but  little  islands.  At 
last,  however,  on  the  tenth  of  May,  a  big  one 
with  high  mountains  and  forests  was  reached. 
It  was  called  Cocos  Island  because  there  were 
many  cocoanut-trees  near  the  shore.  The  in- 
habitants of  the  island,  being  unfamiliar  with 
white  people,  were  very  hospitable  and  were 
willing  to  trade  fresh  cocoanuts  and  other  eat- 
able things  for  a  few  gifts  of  trinkets  and  per- 
haps a  small  pocket-knife.  But  jealousy  was 
not  unknown  even  in  this  distant  part  of  the 
South  Seas.  Soon  there  was  a  quarrel  between 
those  canoes  nearest  to  the  ship  which  had  ob- 
tained presents  and  others  too  far  away  to  re- 
ceive anything.  Also  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
annoyance  caused  by  the  fact  that  the  natives 
insisted  upon  stealing  everything  they  could 
find  on  the  ship.  Finally  Schouten  was  obliged 
to  appoint  a  temporary  police  of  Hollanders 
armed  with  heavy  canes  to  keep  the  natives  in 
their  proper  place.  Otherwise  they  might  have 
stolen  the  ship  itself,  just  as  they  had  once  tried 
to  make  away  with  all  the  boats.     Upon  that 

291 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

occasion  they  had  made  their  first  acquaintance 
of  fire-arms.  When  they  saw  what  a  little  bul- 
let could  do  they  respected  the  mysterious  lead 
pipes  which  made  a  sudden  loud  noise  and 
killed  a  man  at  a  hundred  yards.  Near  Cocos 
Island  there  appeared  to  be  more  mountainous 
land,  and  Schouten  decided  to  visit  it.  The 
king  came  out  in  state  In  his  canoe  to  greet  the 
Dutch  captain.  He  was  entertained  royally 
with  a  concert.  To  show  how  much  he  appre- 
ciated the  lovely  music  which  he  had  just  heard 
the  king  yelled  and  shrieked  as  loudly  as  he 
could.  It  was  very  funny,  and  everybody  was 
happy.  But  this  pleasant  relation  did  not  last 
long,  for  when  the  Hollanders  were  about  to 
reciprocate  the  visit  their  ship  was  attacked,  and 
several  volleys  from  the  large  cannon  were 
necessary  to  drive  the  natives  away.  These  is- 
lands were  called  the  Islands  of  the  Traitors,  be- 
cause the  king  had  tried  to  kill  the  people  whom 
he  had  invited  as  his  guests,  and  they  are  known 
to-day  as  the  Ladrones. 

The    Eendracht   was    now    sixteen    hundred 
miles  to  the  west  of  Peru,  and  as  yet  the  un- 

292 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

known  Southern  continent  had  not  been  discov- 
ered. The  wind  continued  to  blow  from  the 
east.  In  a  council  of  the  officers  of  the  ship  it 
was  decided  to  keep  a  more  northern  course 
until  it  could  be  ascertained  with  precision 
where  they  were  in  this  vast  expanse  of  pacific 
water  and  small  coral  islands.  It  was  an  un- 
fortunate decision.  The  ship  was  then  very 
near  the  coast  of  Australia.  Sailing  from  one 
group  of  islands  to  the  next  it  had  followed 
a  course  parallel  to  the  northern  coast  of  the 
continent  for  which  the  men  were  searching 
with  great  industry.  After  a  while  they  were 
obliged  to  land  on  another  island  for  fresh 
water.  They  were  again  entertained  by  the 
king  of  the  island.  He  gave  a  dinner  and  a 
dance  in  their  honor,  and  they  had  a  chance  to 
admire  the  graceful  motions  of  the  young  girls 
of  the  villages.  They  must  have  been  among 
the  Fiji  Islands.  Farther  westward,  however, 
they  discovered  that  the  attitude  of  the  natives 
toward  them  began  to  change.  Evidently  they 
were  reaching  a  region  where  the  white  man 
was    not   unknown    and   was    accordingly   dis- 

•  294 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

trusted.  Chinese  and  Japanese  objects,  here 
and  there  a  knife  or  a  gun  of  European  origin, 
were  found  among  the  natives  who  came  pad- 
dling out  to  the  Dutch  ship.  Their  map  told 
them  that  they  were  approaching  the  domains 
of  the  East  India  Company.  It  had  not  been 
their  intention  to  do  this,  but  the  reputed 
Southern  continent  seemed  to  be  a  myth.  It 
was  time  for  them  to  try  and  reach  home  and 
report  their  adventures  to  the  own^ers  of  the 
ship. 

Sailing  along  the  coast  of  New  Guinea,  they 
at  last  reached  the  port  of  Ternate  on  the  seven- 
teenth of  September.  Here  they  found  a  large 
Dutch  fleet  which  had  just  reached  the  Indies 
by  way  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  This  fleet 
was  under  command  of  Admiral  van  Spil- 
bergen,  who  was  much  surprised  to  hear  that 
the  Eendracht  had  reached  the  Pacific  through 
a  new  strait.  He  showed  that  he  did  not  be- 
lieve the  story  which  Schouten  told  of  his  new 
discoveries.  If  there  were  such  a  strait,  then 
why  had  it  taken  the  Eendracht  such  a  long 
time  to  reach  Ternate?  etc.     The  admiral  sus- 

296 


A  NEW  STRAIT 

pected  that  this  ship  was  a  mere  interloper  sent 
by  Le  Maire  to  trade  in  a  region  where,  ac- 
cording to  the  instructions  of  the  East  Indian 
Company,  no  other  ships  than  those  of  the  com- 
pany were  allowed  to  engage  in  commerce. 

This  suspicion  was  very  unpleasant  for  the 
brave  Schouten,  but  there  were  other  things  to 
worry  him.  Before  the  expedition  started  old 
Le  Maire,  a  shrewd  trader,  had  thought  of  the 
possibility  that  his  ships  might  not  be  able  to 
find  this  unknown  continent.  In  that  case  he 
did  not  want  them  to  come  home  without  some 
profit  to  himself,  and  he  had  invented  a  scheme 
by  which  he  might  perhaps  beat  the  company 
at  her  own  game.  The  governor-general  of 
the  Dutch  colonies  at  that  time  was  a  certain 
Gerard  Reynst,  who  was  known  to  be  an  avari- 
cious and  dishonest  official.  Le  Maire  counted 
upon  this,  and  to  his  eldest  son  he  had  given 
secret  instructions  which  told  him  what  to  do 
in  such  circumstances.  The  idea  was  very  sim- 
ple. Young  Le  Maire  must  bribe  Reynst  with 
an  offer  of  money  or  whatever  would  be  most 
acceptable  to  the  governor.     In  return  for  this 

297 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Reynst  would  not  be  too  particular  if  the  Een- 
dracht  went  to  some  out-of-the-way  island  and 
bought  a  few  hundred  thousand  pounds  worth 
of  spices. 

It  was  a  very  happy  idea,  and  it  undoubtedly 
would  have  worked.  Unfortunately  Reynst  had 
just  died.  His  successor  was  no  one  less  than 
Jan  Pietersz  Coen,  the  man  of  iron  who  was  to 
hammer  the  few  isolated  settlements  into  one 
strong  colonial  empire.  Coen  could  not  be 
bribed.  To  him  the  law  was  the  law.  The 
Eendracht  did  not  belong  to  the  East  India 
Company;  therefore,  it  had  no  right  to  be  in 
India  according  to  Coen's  positive  instructions. 
The  ship  was  confiscated.  The  men  were  al- 
lowed to  return  to  Holland.  And  the  owners 
were  told  that  they  could  start  a  lawsuit  in  the 
Dutch  courts  to  decide  whether  the  governor- 
general  had  acted  within  his  rights  or  not. 

Young  Le  Maire  sailed  for  Holland  very 
much  dejected.  He  had  lost  his  father's  ship, 
and  nobody  would  believe  him  when  he  told  of 
his  great  discovery  of  the  new  and  short  con- 
nection between  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic. 

298 


A  NEW  STRAIT 

He  died  on  the  way  home,  died  of  disappoint- 
ment. His  hopes  had  been  so  great.  He  had 
done  his  task  faithfully,  and  he  and  Schouten 
had  found  a  large  number  of  new  islands  and 
had  added  many  thousands  of  miles  of  geo- 
graphical information  to  that  part  of  the  map 
which  was  still  covered  with  the  ominous  let- 
'ters  of  terra  incognita.  Yet  through  an  ordi- 
nance which  many  people  did  not  recognize  as 
just  he  was  deprived  of  the  glory  which  ought 
to"  have  come  to  him.  His  younger  brother 
reached  Halland  on  the  second  of  July  of  the 
year  1617,  and  a  week  later  he  appeared  in  the 
meeting  of  the  Estates  General.  This  time  the 
story  which  he  told  was  believed  by  his  hearers. 
The  idea  of  an  old  man  being  the  chief  mover 
in  equipping  such  a  wonderful  enterprise  with 
the  help  of  his  sons  and  only  a  small  capital 
against  all  sorts  of  odds  assured  Le  Maire  the 
sympathy  of  the  man  in  the  street.  For  a  while 
Governor-General  Coen  was  highly  unpopular. 
Old  Le  Maire  started  a  suit  for  the  recovery 
of  his  ship  and  its  contents.  After  two  years  of 
pleading   he   won   his   case.     The   East   India 

299 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Company  was  ordered  to  pay  back  the  value  of 
the  ship  and  the  goods  confiscated.  All  his  of- 
ficial papers  were  returned  to  Le  Maire.  His 
name  and  that  of  the  little  town  of  Hoorn,  given 
to  the  most  southern  point  of  the  American  con- 
tinent and  to  the  shortest  route  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Pacific,  tell  of  this  great  voyage 
of  the  year  1618. 


300 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 


X 


CHAPTER  X 
TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

IT  often  happened  that  ships  of  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company  on  their  way  to  the 
Indies  were  blown  out  of  their  course  or 
were  carried  by  the  currents  In  a  southern  di- 
rection. Then  they  were  driven  into  a  part  of 
the  map  which  was  as  yet  unknown,  and  they 
had  to  find  their  way  about  very  much  as  a 
stranger  might  do  who  has  left  the  well-known 
track  of  the  desert.  Sometimes  these  ships 
were  lost.  More  often  they  reached  a  low,  flat 
coast  which  seemed  to  extend  both  east  and 
west  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  which  offered 
very  little  food  and  very  little  water,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  the  shore-line  of  a  vast  continent 
which  was  remarkably  poor  in  both  plants  and 
animals.  Indeed,  so  unattractive  was  this  big 
island,  as  it  was  then  supposed  to  be,  to  the  cap- 
tains of  the  company  that  not  a  single  one  of 

303 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

them  had  ever  taken  the  trouble  to  explore  it. 
They  had  followed  the  coast-line  until  once 
more  they  reached  the  well-known  regions  of 
their  map,  and  then  they  had  hastened  north- 
ward to  the  comfortable  waters  of  their  own 
Indian  Ocean.  But  of  course  people  talked 
about  this  mysterious  big  island,  and  they  won- 
dered. They  wondered  whether,  perhaps,  the 
stories  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  stories  of  the 
golden  land  of  Ophir,  which  had  never  yet  been 
found,  might  not  yet  be  proved  true  in  that 
large  part  of  the  map  which  showed  a  blank 
space  and  was  covered  with  the  letters  of  terra 
incognita. 

If  there  were  any  such  land  still  to  be  discov- 
ered by  any  European  people,  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company  decided  that  they  ought  to 
benefit  by  it.  Therefore  their  directors  studied 
the  question  with  great  care  and  deliberation. 

A  number  of  expeditions  were  sent  out  one 
after  the  other.  In  the  year  1636  two  small 
vessels  were  ordered  to  make  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  the  island  of  New  Guinea,  which  was 
supposed  to  be  the  peninsula  part  of  the  un- 

»     304 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

known  Southern  continent.  But  New  Guinea 
itself  is  so  large  that  the  two  vessels,  after 
spending  a  very  long  time  along  the  coast,  were 
obliged  to  return  without  any  definite  informa- 
tion. 

Anthony  van  Diemen,  the  governor-general 
of  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  however,  was  a  man 
of  stubborn  purpose,  and  he  refused  to  discon- 
tinue his  search  until  he  should  have  positive 
knowledge  upon  this  puzzling  subject.  Six 
years  after  this  first  attempt  he  appointed  a  cer- 
tain Franz  Jacobsz  Visscher  to  study  the  ques- 
tion theoretically  from  every  possible  angle  and 
to  write  him  a  detailed  report.  Visscher  had 
crossed  the  Pacific  Ocean  a  few  years  after  the 
discovery  of  Strait  Le  Maire,  and  he  had  visited 
Japan  and  China,  and  was  familiar  with  all  the 
better  known  parts  of  the  Asiatic  seas.  He  set 
to  work,  and  he  gave  the  following  advice. 
The  ships  of  the  company  must  take  the  island 
of  Mauritius  as  their  starting-point.  They 
must  follow  a  southeastern  course  until  they 
should  reach  the  54  degree  of  latitude.  If, 
in  the  meantime,  they  had  not  found  any  land, 

30s 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

they  must  turn  toward  the  east  until  they  should 
reach  New  Guinea,  and  from  there,  using  this 
peninsula  or  island  or  whatever  it  was  as  a 
starting-point,  they  should  establish  its  correct 
relation  to  the  continent  of  which  it  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  solid  part.  If  it  should  prove  to 
be  an  island,  then  the  ships  must  chart  the  strait 
which  separated  it  from  the  continent,  and  they 
must  find  out  whether  these  did  not  offer  a  short 
route  from  India  to  Strait  Le  Maire  and  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

Van  Diemen  studied  those  plans  carefully. 
He  approved  of  them,  and  ordered  two  ships 
to  be  made  ready  for  the  voyage.  They  were 
small  ships.  There  was  the  Heemskerk,  with 
sixty  men,  and  the  Zeehaen,  with  only  forty. 
Visscher  was  engaged  to  act  as  pilot  and  gen- 
eral adviser  of  the  expedition.  The  command 
was  given  to  one  Abel  Tasman.  Like  most  of 
the  great  men  of  the  republic,  he  had  made  his 
own  career.  Born  in  an  insignificant  village 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  republic  somewhere 
in  the  province  of  Groningen, — the  name  of  the 
village  was  Lutjegat, — he  had  started  life  as  a 

306 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

sailor,  had  worked  his  way  up  through  ability 
and  force  of  character,  and  in  the  early  thirties 
of  the  seventeenth  century  he  had  gone  to  India. 
Thereafter  he  had  spent  most  of  his  life  as  cap- 
tain or  mate  of  different  ships  of  the  company. 
He  had  been  commander  of  an  expedition  sent 
out  to  discover  a  new  gold-land,  which,  accord- 
ing to  rumor,  must  be  situated  somewhere  ofif 
the  coast  of  Japan,  and  although  he  did  not  find 
it, — since  it  did  not  exist, — he  had  added  many 
new  islands  to  the  map  of  the  company.  Since 
he  was  a  man  of  very  independent  character,  he 
was  specially  fitted  to  be  in  command  of  an  ex- 
pedition which  might  meet  with  many  unfore- 
seen difficulties. 

His  instructions  gave  him  absolute  freedom 
of  action.  The  chief  purpose  of  this  expedition 
was  a  scientific  one.  Professional  draughtsmen 
were  appointed  to  accompany  the  Heemskerk 
and  make  careful  maps  of  everything  that 
should  be  discovered.  Special  attention  must 
be  paid  to  the  currents  of  the  ocean  and  to  the 
prevailing  direction  of  the  wind.  Further- 
more,  a  careful  study  of  the  natives  must  be 

307 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

made.  Their  mode  of  life,  their  customs,  and 
their  habits  must  be  investigated,  and  they  must 
be  treated  with  kindness.  If  the  natives  should 
come  on  board  and  should  steal  things,  the  Hol- 
landers must  not  mind  such  trifles.  The  chief 
aim  of  the  expedition  was  to  establish  relations 
with  whatever  races  were  to  be  discovered.  Of 
course  there  was  little  hope  of  finding  anything 
except  long-haired  Papuans,  but  if  by  any 
chance  Tasman  should  discover  the  unknown 
southland  and  find  that  this  continent  contained 
the  rumored  riches,  he  must  not  show  himself 
desirous  of  getting  gold  and  silver.  On  the 
contrary,  he  must  show  the  inhabitants  lead  and 
brass,  and  tell  them  that  these  two  metals  were 
the  most  valuable  commodities  in  the  country 
which  had  sent  him  upon  his  voyage.  Finally, 
whatever  land  was  found  must  be  annexed  of- 
ficially for  the  benefit  of  the  Estates  General  of 
the  Dutch  Republic,  and  of  this  fact  some  last- 
ing memorial  must  be  left  upon  the  coast  in  the 
form  of  a  written  document,  well  hidden  below 
a  stone  or  a  board  planted  in  such  a  way  that 
the  natives  could  not  destroy  it. 

308 


^/ 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

On  the  nineteenth  of  August,  Tasman  and  his 
two  ships  went  to  Mauritius,  where  the  tanks 
were  filled  with  fresh  water  and  all  the  men 
got  a  holiday.  They  were  given  plenty  of  food 
to  strengthen  them  for  the  voyage  which  they 
were  about  to  undertake  through  the  unknown 
seas.  After  a  month  of  leisure  the  two  ships 
left  on  the  sixth  of  October  of  the  year  1642  ^ 
and  started  out  to  discover  whatever  they  might 
find.  The  farther  southward  they  got  the 
colder  the  climate  began  to  be.  Snow  and  hail 
and  fog  were  the  order  of  the  day.  Seals  ap- 
peared, and  everything  indicated  that  they  were 
reaching  the  Arctic  Ocean  of  the  Southern 
Hemisphere.  Day  and  night  they  kept  a  man 
in  the  crow's-nest  to  look  for  land.  Tasman 
ofifered  a  reward  of  money  and  rum  for  the 
sailor  who  should  first  see  a  light  upon  the  hori- 
zon, but  they  found  nothing  except  salt  water 
and  a  cloudy  sky. 

Tasman  consulted  Visscher,  and  asked  him 
whether  it  would  not  be  better  to  follow  the 
44  degree  of  latitude  than  to  go  farther  into 
this  stormy  region.     Since  they  had  been  sail- 

309 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

ing  in  a  southern  direction  for  almost  a  month 
without  finding  anything  at  all,  Visscher  agreed 
to  this  change  in  his  original  plans.  Once  more 
there  followed  a  couple  of  weeks  of  dreary 
travel  without  the  sight  of  anything  hopeful. 


O   a 


At  last,  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  November  of  the 
^  year  1642,  at  four  o'clock  of  the  afternoon,  land 
was  seen.  Tasman  thought  that  it  was  part  of 
his  continent  and  called  it  Van  Diemen's  Land, 
after  the  governor-general  who  had  sent  him 
out.  We  know  that  it  was  an  island  to  the 
south  of  the  Australian  continent,  and  we  now 
call  it  Tasmania. 

On  the  second  of  December  Tasman  tried  to 

310 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

go  on  shore  with  all  his  officers,  but  the  weather 
was  bad  and  the  surf  was  too  dangerous  for 
the  small  boat  of  the  Heemskerk.  The  ship's 
carpenter  then  jumped  overboard  with  the  flag 
of  the  Dutch  Republic  and  a  flagpole  under  his 
arm.  He  reached  the  shore,  planted  his  pole, 
and  with  Tasman  and  his  staff  floating  on  the 
high  waves  of  the  Australian  surf  and  applaud- 
ing him  the  carpenter  hoisted  the  orange,  white, 
and  blue  colors  which  were  to  show  to  all  the 
world  that  the  white  man  had  taken  possession 
of  a  new  part  of  the  world.  The  carpenter 
once  more  swam  through  the  waves,  was  pulled 
back  into  the  boat,  and  the  first  ceremony  con- 
nected with  the  Southern  continent  was  over. 

The  voyage  was  then  continued,  but  nowhere 
could  the  ships  find  a  safe  bay  in  which  they 
might  drop  anchor.  Everywhere  the  coast  ap- 
peared to  be  dangerous.  The  surf  was  high, 
and  the  wind  blew  hard.  At  last,  on  the  eight- 
eenth of  December,  after  another  long  voyage 
across  the  open  sea,  more  land  was  seen.  This 
time  the  coast  was  even  more  dangerous  than 
it  had  been  in  Tasmania  and  the  land  was  cov- 

311 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

ered  with  high  mountains.  Furthermore  the 
Hollanders  had  to  deal  with  a  new  sort  of 
native,  much  more  savage  and  more  able  to  de- 
fend themselves  than  those  who  had  looked  at 
the  two  ships  from  the  safe  distance  of  Van 
Diemen's  Land,  but  had  fled  whenever  the 
white  man  tried  to  come  near  their  shore. 

At  first  the  natives  of  this  new  land  rowed  out 
to  the  Heemskerk  and  the  Zeehaen  and  paddled 
around  the  ships  without  doing  any  harm.  But 
one  day  the  boat  of  the  Zeehaen  tried  to  return 
their  visit.  It  was  at  once  attacked  by  the  fero- 
cious natives.  Three  Dutch  sailors  were  killed 
with  clubs,  and  several  were  wounded  with 
spears.  Not  until  after  the  Heemskerk  had 
fired  a  volley  and  had  sunk  a  number  of  canoes 
did  the  others  flee  and  leave  the  Dutch  boat 
alone.  The  wounded  men  were  taken  on 
board,  where  several  of  them  died  next  day. 
Tasman  did  not  dare  to  risk  a  further  investi- 
gation of  this  bay  with  his  small  vessels,  and 
after  the  loss  of  several  of  his  small  company 
he  departed.  The  place  of  disaster  he  called 
Tasman    Bay,    and   sailed    farther   toward   the 

312 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

north.  If  he  had  gone  a  few  miles  to  the  east, 
he  would  have  discovered  that  this  was  not  a 
bay  at  all  but  the  strait  which  divides  the  north- 
ern and  southern  part  of  New  Zealand.  Now 
it  is  called  Cook  Strait  after  the  famous  British 
sailor  who  a  century  later  explored  that  part 
of  the  world  and  who  found  that  New  Zealand 
is  not  part  of  a  continent,  but  a  large  island 
which  offered  a  splendid  chance  for  a  settle- 
ment. It  was  very  fertile,  and  the  natives  had 
reached  a  much  higher  degree  of  civilization 
than  those  of  the  Australian  continent.  Cook 
made  another  interesting  discovery.  The  na- 
tives who  had  seen  the  first  appearance  of  the 
white  man  had  been  so  deeply  impressed  by 
the  arrival  of  the  two  Dutch  ships  that  they 
turned  their  mysterious  appearance  into  a  myth. 
This  myth  had  grown  in  size  and  importance 
with  each  new  generation,  and  when  Captain 
Cook  dropped  anchor  off  the  coast  of  New  Zea- 
land and  established  relations  with  the  natives, 
the  latter  told  him  a  wonderful  story  of  two 
gigantic  vessels  which  had  come  to  their  island 
ever   so   long   ago,    and   which    had   been   dc- 

313 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

stroyed  by  their  ancestors  while  all  the  men  on 
board  had  been  killed. 

It  is  not  easy  to  follow  Tasman  on  the  mod- 
ern map.  After  leaving  Cook  Strait  he  went 
northward,  and  passing  between  the  most  north- 
ern point  of  the  island,  which  he  called  Cape 
Maria  van  Diemen,  and  a  small  island  which, 
because  it  was  discovered  on  the  sixth  of  Jan- 
uary, was  called  the  "Three  Kings  Island,"  he 
reached  open  water  once  more. 

He  now  took  his  course  due  north  in  the  hope 
of  reaching  some  of  the  islands  which  Le  Maire 
had  discovered.  Instead  of  that,  on  the  nine- 
teenth of  January,  the  two  ships  found  several 
islands  of  the  Tonga  group,  also  called  the 
Friendly  Islands.  They  baptized  these  with 
names  of  local  Dutch  celebrities  and  famous 
men  in  the  nautical  world  of  Holland.  Near 
one  of  them,  called  Amsterdam,  because  it 
looked  a  little  more  promising  than  any  of  the 
others,  the  ships  stopped,  and  once  more  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  establish  amicable  relations 
with  the  natives.  These  came  rowing  out  to  the 
ship,  and  whenever  anything  was  thrown  over- 

314 


*t''-s.''r'<ir- 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

board  they  dived  after  it  and  showed  an  ability 
to  swim  and  to  remain  under  water  which  ever 
since  has  been  connected  with  the  idea  of  the 
South  Sea  population.  By  means  of  signs  and 
after  all  sorts  of  presents,  such  as  little  mirrors 


and  nails  and  small  knives,  had  been  thrown 
overboard  to  be  fished  up  by  the  natives,  Tas- 
man  got  into  communication  with  the  Tonga 
people.  He  showed  them  a  mean,  thin  chicken 
and  pointed  to  his  stomach.  The  natives  un- 
derstood this  and  brought  him  fresh  food.  He 
showed  an  empty  glass  and  went  through  the 
motion  of  drinking.  The  natives  pointed  to  the 
land  and  showed  him  by  signs  that  they  knew 

316 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

what  was  wanted,  and  that  there  was  fresh 
water  to  be  obtained  on  shore.  C- 

Gradually  the  natives  lost  their  fear  and 
climbed  on  board.  In  exchange  for  the  cocoa- 
nuts  which  they  brought  they  received  a  plenti- 
ful supply  of  old  rusty  nails.  When  those  on 
shore  heard  that  the  millennium  of  useful  metal 
had  come  sailing  into  their  harbor,  their  eager- 
ness to  get  their  own  share  was  so  great  that  hun- 
dreds of  them  came  swimming  out  to  the  Dutch 
vessels  to  offer  their  wares  before  the  supply  of 
nails  should  be  exhausted.  Tasman  himself 
went  on  land,  and  the  relations  between  native 
and  visitor  were  so  pleasant  that  the  first  appear- 
ance of  the  white  man  became  the  subject  of  a 
Tonga  epic  which  was  still  recited  among  the 
natives  when  the  next  European  ship  landed 
here  a  century  and  a  quarter  later. 

Going  from  island  to  island  and  everywhere 
meeting  with  the  same  sort  of  long-haired,  vigor- 
ous-looking men,  Tasman  now  sailed  in  a  south- 
western direction.  He  spent  several  weeks  be- 
tween the  Fiji  Islands  and  the  group  now  called 

317 


vy 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Samoa.  During  all  this  time  his  ships  were  in 
grave  danger  of  running  upon  the  hidden  reefs 
which  are  plentiful  in  this  part  of  the  Pacific. 
At  last  the  winter  began  to  approach  and  the 
weather  grew  more  and  more  unstable,  and  as 
the  ships  after  their  long  voyage  were  in  need 
of  a  safe  harbor  and  repair,  it  was  decided  to 
try  and  return  within  the  confines  of  the  map  of 
the  known  and  explored  world.  Accordingly 
the  ships  sailed  westward  and  discovered  several 
islands  of  the  Solomon  group,  sailed  through 
the  Bismarck  Archipelago,  as  it  is  called  now, 
and  after  several  months  reached  the  northern 
part  of  New  Guinea,  which  they,  too,  supposed 
to  be  the  northern  coast  of  the  large  continent 
of  which  they  had  touched  the  shores  at  so  many 
spots,  but  which  instead  of  the  promised  Ophir 
was  a  dreary,  flat  land  surrounded  by  little  is- 
lands full  of  cocoanuts,  natives,  and  palm-trees, 
but  without  a  scrap  of  either  gold  or  silver. 

Tasman  then  found  himself  in  well-known 
regions.  He  made  straightway  for  Batavia,  and 
on  the  fifteenth  of  June  of  the  year  1644  he 
landed  to  report  his  adventures  to  the  governor- 

318 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

general  and  the  council  of  the  Indian  Company. 
A  few  months  later  he  was  sent  out  upon  a  new 
expedition,  this  time  with  three  ships.  He 
made  a  detailed  investigation  of  the  northern 


coast  of  the  real  Australian  continent.  He 
sailed  into  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria.  He  found 
the  Torres  Strait,  which  he  supposed  to  be  a 
bay  between  New  Guinea  and  Australia, — for 
the  report  of  the  Torres  discovery  in  1607  was 
as  yet  in  the  dusty  archives  of  Manila,  and  had 
not  been  given  to  the  world, — and  once  more 
he  returned  by  way  of  the  western  coast  of 
New  Guinea  to  inform  the  governor-general 
that  whatever  continent  he  had  found  produced 

319 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

nothing  which  could  be  of  any  material  profit 
to  the  Dutch  East  India  Company.  In  short, 
New  Holland,  as  Australia  was  then  called, 
was  not  settled  by  the  Hollanders  because  it  had 
no  immediate  commercial  value.  After  this 
last  voyage  no  further  expeditions  were  sent  out 


to  look  for  the  supposed  Southern  Continent. 
From  the  reports  of  several  ships  which  had 
reached  the  west  coast  of  Australia  and  from  the 
information  brought  home  by  Tasman  it  was 
decided  that  whatever  land  there  might  still 
be  hidden  between  the  no  and  in  degree  of 
longitude,  offered  no  inducements  to  a  respect- 

320 


TASMAN  EXPLORES  AUSTRALIA 

able  trading  company  which  looked  for  gold 
and  silver  and  spices,  but  had  no  use  for  kanga- 
roos and  the  duck-billed  platypus.  New  Hol- 
land was  left  alone  until  the  growing  population 
of  the  European  continent  drove  other  nations 
to  explore  this  part  of  the  world  once  more  a 
hundred  and  twenty  years  later. 


321 


ROGGEVEEN,  THE  LAST  OF  THE 
GREAT  VOYAGERS 


CHAPTER  XI 

ROGGEVEEN,  THE  LAST  OF  THE 
GREAT  VOYAGERS 

THE  Hollanders  entered  the  field  of  geo- 
graphical exploration  at  a  late  date. 
The  Spaniards  and  the  Portuguese  had 
discovered  and  navigated  distant  parts  of  the 
world  for  almost  two  centuries  before  the  Hol- 
lander began  to  leave  his  own  shores.  But 
when  we  remember  that  they  were  a  small  na- 
tion and  were  engaged  upon  one  of  the  most 
gigantic  wars  which  was  ever  fought,  the  re- 
sult of  their  labors  as  pioneers  of  the  map  was 
considerable.  They  found  Spitzbergen  and 
many  new  islands  in  the  Arctic,  and  gave  us 
the  first  reliable  information  about  the  imprac- 
ticability of  the  Northeastern  Passage.  They 
discovered  a  new  route  to  the  Pacific  shorter 
and  less  dangerous  than  the  Strait  of  Magellan. 

325 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

They  charted  the  southern  part  of  the  Pacific, 
and  made  the  first  scientific  inspection  of  the 
Australian  continent,  besides  discovering  New 
Zealand  and  Tasmania.  They  discovered  a 
number  of  new  islands  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and 
settled  upon  the  fertile  islands  of  Mauritius. 
Of  course  I  now  enumerate  only  the  names  of 
their  actual  discoveries.  They  established  set- 
tlements in  North  and  South  America  and  all 
over  Asia  and  in  many  places  of  Africa.  They 
opened  a  small  window  into  the  mysterious  Jap- 
anese Empire,  and  got  into  relation  with  the 
Son  of  Heaven  who  resided  in  Peking.  They 
founded  a  very  prosperous  colony  in  South 
Africa.  They  had  colonies  along  the  Red  Sea 
and  the  Gulf  of  Persia.  But  about  these  colo- 
nies I  shall  tell  in  another  book.  This  time  I 
give  only  the  story  of  the  voyages  of  actual  dis- 
C-Qveiy.  The  adventures  of  men  who  set  out  to 
perform  the  work  of  pioneers,  the  career  of 
navigators  who  had  convinced  themselves  that 
here  or  there  a  new  continent  or  an  undiscov- 
ered cape  or  a  forgotten  island  awaited  their 
curious  eyes,  and  who  then  risked  their  fortunes 

326 


LAST  OF  THE  GREAT  VOYAGERS 

and  their  lives  to  realize  their  dreams;  in  one 
word,  the  men  of  constructive  vision  who  are  of 
greater  value  to  their  world  than  any  others  be- 


cause they  show  the  human  race  the  road  of  the 
future. 

In  Holland  the  last  of  those  was  a  certain 
Jacob  Roggeveen,  a  man  of  deep  learning,  for 
many  years  a  member  of  the  High  Tribunal  of 
the  Indies,  and  a  leader  among  his  fellow-beings 
wherever  he  went.  He  had  traveled  a  great 
deal,  and  he  might  have  spent  the  rest  of  his  few 
years  peacefully  at  home,  but  when  he  was  sixty- 
two  years  old  the  desire  to  learn  more  of  the 

327 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

Southern  Continent  which  had  been  seen,  but 
which  had  never  been  thoroughly  explored,  the 
wish  to  know  definitely  whether  there  remained 
anything  as  yet  undiscovered  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  drove  him  across  the  equator.  With 
three  ships  and  six  hundred  men  he  left  Texel 
on  the  first  of  August  of  the  year  172 1,  and  the 
next  year  in  February  he  was  near  Juan  Fernan- 
dez in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  An  expedition  like 
this  had  never  been  seen  before.  All  the  expe- 
rience of  past  years  had  been  studied  most  care- 
fully. It  was  known  that  people  fell  ill  and 
died  of  scurvy  because  they  did  not  get  enough 
fresh  vegetables.  Wooden  boxes  filled  with 
earth  were  therefore  placed  along  the  bulwarks 
of  all  the  ships.  In  these  some  simple  and  hardy 
vegetables  were  planted.  Instead  of  the  old 
method  of  taking  boxes  full  of  bread  which 
turned  sour  and  got  moldy,  ovens  were  placed  on 
board,  and  flour  was  taken  along  from  which  to 
bake  bread.  An  attempt  was  made  to  preserve 
carrots  and  beets  in  boxes  filled  with  powdered 
peat.  People  still  fell  ill  during  this  voyage, 
but  the  wholesale  death  of  at  least  half  of  the 

328 


LAST  OF  THE  GREAT  VOYAGERS 

crew  of  which  we  read  in  all  the  old  voyages 
did  not  take  place.  When  Roggeveen  reached 
Juan  Fernandez  he  found  the  cabin  of  Robinson 
Crusoe  just  as  it  had  been  left  in  the  year  1709. 
Otherwise  the  island  proved  to  be  uninhabited. 


On  the  seventeenth  of  March  the  ships  continued 
their  way,  and  a  southern  course  was  taken. 
Nothing  was  seen  until  Easter  day,  when  a  new 
island  was  found  on  the  spot  where  an  English 
map  hinted  at  the  existence  of  a  large  continent. 
This  island,  however,  contained  nothing  except 
a  few  natives.  It  did  not  in  the  least  resemble 
the  unknown  Southern  Continent  of  which  Rog- 

329 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

geveen  dreamed.  Therefore  he  went  farther 
toward  the  south.  For  a  while  he  followed  the 
route  taken  many  years  before  by  Le  Maire. 
Some  of  the  islands  which  Le  Maire  had  visited 
he  found  on  his  map.  Others  he  could  not 
locate.  Still  others  were  now  seen  for  the  first 
time.  It  was  a  very  dangerous  sea  to  navigate. 
The  Pacific  Ocean  is  full  of  reefs.  These  reefs 
now  appear  upon  the  map,  but  even  in  this  day 
of  scientific  navigation  they  wreck  many  a  ship. 
On  the  nineteenth  of  April  one  of  Roggeveen's 
ships  ran  upon  such  a  hidden  reef  in  the  middle 
of  the  night.  The  crew  was  saved,  and  was 
divided  among  the  other  two  vessels.  The  ship, 
however,  was  a  total  loss.  Nothing  could  be 
saved  of  the  personal  belongings  of  the  men  and 
the  provisions.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the 
South  Sea  islands  always  have  had  a  wonderful 
fascination  for  a  certain  kind  of  temperament. 
Many  times  while  ships  crossed  the  Pacific  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century  sailors 
preferred  to  remain  behind  on  some  small  island 
and  spend  the  rest  of  their  lives  there  with  the 
natives  and  the  fine  weather  and  the  long  days 

330 


LAST  OF  THE  GREAT  VOYAGERS 

of  lazy  ease.  Five  of  Roggeveen's  crew  re- 
mained behind  on  one  of  those  islands,  and  when 
in  the  year  1764  the  British  explored  the  King 
George  Archipelago,  they  actually  found  one 
of  these  five,  then  a  very  old  man. 

More  than  half  a  year  was  spent  by  Rogge- 
veen  in  exploring  the  hundreds  of  islands  and 
the  many  groups  of  larger  islands  which  the  in- 
dustrious coral  insect  had  built  upon  the  bottom 
of  the  ocean.  He  found  the  Samoan  Islands, 
and  visited  several  of  the  Fiji  group.  Every- 
where he  met  with  the  same  sort  of  natives. 
How  they  got  there  was  a  puzzle  to  Roggeveen. 
They  must  have  come  from  some  large  conti- 
nent, and  he  intended  to  find  that  continent. 
But  time  went  by,  and  his  supplies  dwindled 
away,  and  he  did  not  see  anything  that  resem- 
bled his  famous  continent.  Whenever  a  new 
peak  appeared  upon  the  horizon,  there  was 
hope  of  reaching  the  land  of  promise.  But 
from  near  by  the  peak  always  proved  to  be  an- 
other rock  sticking  out  of  a  placid  sea,  and  giv- 
ing shelter  to  a  few  thousand  naked  savages. 

Roggeveen  did  not  stop  his  search  until  his 

331 


DUTCH  NAVIGATORS 

men  began  to  get  sick  and  until  he  had  eaten  his 
last  piece  of  bread.  Finally,  when  two-thirds 
of  the  crew  had  died,  he  considered  himself 
beaten  in  his  search,  and  after  visiting  New 
Guinea  he  went  to  the  Indies.  This  expedition, 
the  last  one  to  sail  forth  to  find  the  land  of  Ophir 
of  the  Old  Testament,  was  a  failure.  We  have 
been  obliged  to  make  the  same  observation  about 
many  of  the  other  voyages  which  we  have 
described  in  this  little  book. 

It  is  true  they  added  some  positive  knowledge 
to  the  map.  They  located  new  islands  and 
described  rivers  and  reefs  and  currents  and  the 
velocity  or  absence  of  wind  in  distant  parts  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean;  but  they  always  cost  the  lives 
of  many  people,  and  they  ruined  the  investors 
in  a  most  cruel  fashion. 

Yet  they  had  one  great  advantage:  They 
forced  people  to  leave  their  comfortable  homes. 
They  made  them  go  forth  and  search  for  things 
about  which  they  had  had  expectant  visions. 
To  the  rest  of  the  world  they  gave  the  tangible 
sign  that  in  this  little  Dutch  corner  of  the  North 
Sea  there  lived  a  people  of  enterprise  and  cour- 

332 


LAST  OF  THE  GREAT  VOYAGERS 

age  who,  although  very  rich,  could  yet  see  be- 
yond mere  material  gain. 
And  what  more  can  we  ask? 

The  Author  wishes  to  state  his  indebtedness 
to  the  work  of  Dr.  de  Boer,  who  fi^st  of  all 
turned  the  lengthy  and  often  tedious  reports  of 
foreign  travel  into  a  concise  and  readable  form 
and  brought  the  knowledge  of  these  early  ad- 
ventures among  a  larger  number  of  readers  than 
before.  Copies  of  the  voyages  in  original  and 
reprint  can  be  found  in  many  American  libra- 
ries. The  material  for  illustrations  is  very 
complete.  Where  no  originals  were  available 
reprints  were  made  from  the  pictures  which  the 
publishing  firm  of  Meulenhof  and  Co.  of  Am- 
sterdam printed  in  Dr.  de  Boer's  first  series  of 
ancient  voyages. 


THE  END 


333 


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